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HISTORY 



KING RICHARD THE THIRD 



ENGLAND. 



BY JACOB ABBOTT. 



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APR15I886 'i 



NEW YORK: 

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

PBANKLIN BQUABB. 



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^HE UBRARV, 
OF CONGJtEir 

WASHINGTON 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty-eight, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of 
New York. 



Copyright, 1886, by Benjamin Vatjghan Abbott, Austin Abbott, 
Lyman Abbott, and Edward Abbott. 



PREFACE. 

King Richard the Third^ known com- 
monly in history as Bickard tlie Usurper, was 
perhaps as bad a man as the principle of hered- 
itary sovereignty ever raised to the throne, or 
perhaps it should rather be said, as the principle 
of hereditary sovereignty ever made. There 
is no evidence that his natural disposition was 
marked with any peculiar depravity. He was 
made reckless, unscrupulous, and cruel by the 
influences which surrounded him, and the cir- 
cumstances in which he lived, and by being 
habituated to believe, from his earliest child- 
hood, that the family to which he belonged 
were born to live in luxury and splendor, and 
to reign, while the millions that formed the 
great mass of the community were created only 
to toil and to obey. The manner in which the 
principles of pride, ambition, and desperate love 
of power, which were instilled into his mind in 
his earliest years, brought forth in the end their 
legitimate fruits, is clearly seen by the following 
narrative. 



CONTENTS. 

ChspUr P«g« 

I. Richard's mother 13 

II. Richard's father 33 

III. THE childhood OF RICHARD 57 

IV. ACCESSION OF EDWARD IV., RICHARD's ELDER 

BROTHER 67 

V. WARWICK, THE KING-MAKER 89 

VI. THE DOWNFALL OF YORK 118 

VII. THE DOWNFALL OF LANCASTER 137 

VIII. RICHARD'S MARRIAGE 165 

IX. END OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD 182 

X. RICHARD AND EDWARD V 208 

XI. TAKING SANCTUARY 221 

XII. RICHARD LORD PROTECTOR 236 

XIII. PROCLAIMED KING 258 

XIV. THE CORONATION 279 

XV. FATE OF THE PRINCES 291 

XVI. DOMESTIC TROUBLES 301 

XVIL THE FIELD OF BOSWORTH 320 



ENGRAVINGS. 



Pag« 

THE ROYAL CHAMPION FrOUttSpiece. 

SCENES OF CIVIL WAR 15 

LUDLOW CASTLE 26 

CASTLE AND PARK OF THE MIDDLE AGES.. -. 29 

HENRY VI. IN HIS CHILDHOOD 38 

QUEEN MARGARET OF ANJOU, WIFE OF HENRY VI... 40 

WALLS OF YORK 49 

LAST HOURS OF KING RICHARD's FATHER 54 

CASTLE AND GROUNDS BELONGING TO THE HOUSE OF 

YORK C2 

the old quintaine 84 

playing ball 86 

battle-door and shuttle-cock 87 

Richard's signature 88 

edward iv 102 

queen elizabeth woodville 103 

westminster in times of public celebrations. 106 

warwick in the presence of the french king 112 

the sanctuary ^ 133 

death of warwick on the field of barnet... 148 

street leading to the tower 151 

church at tewkesbury 155 



xii Engeavings. 

Page 
QUEEN MARGARET BROUGHT IN PRISONER AT COV- 
ENTRY 160 

TOMB OF HENRY VI 163 

RICHARD 111. 176 

QUEEN ANNE 177 

MIDDLEHAM OASTLE 180 

LOUIS XI. OF FRANCE 184 

THE MURDERERS COMING FOR CLARENCE 200 

JANE SHORE. 203 

THE ATTEMPTED RECONCILIATION 211 

ANCIENT PORTRAIT OF EDWARD V 219 

ANCIENT VIEW OF WESTMINSTER . 228 

THE PEOPLE IN THE STREETS 235 

clarence's CHILDREN HEARING OF THEIR FATHER's 

DEATH 237 

THE COUNCIL IN THE TOWER .................. . 244 

POMFRET CASTLE . . . 248 

BAYNARD's CASTLE......... ....... .... 273 

THE KING ON HIS THRONE 276 

THE BLOODY TOWER . . . . . 283 

QUEEN ELIZABETH AT THE GRAVE.. 304 

PORTRAIT OF THE PRINCliSS ELIZABETH - . 318 

THE CASTLE AT TAMWORTH 325 

KING HENRY VII 332 

THE MONASTERY AT BERMONDSEY 335 



KING RICHARD III. 

Chapter I. 
Eichard's Mother. 

The great quarrel between the houses of York and Lancaater. 

THE mother of King Eichard the Third was 
a beautiful, and, in many respects, a noble- 
minded woman, though she lived in very rude, 
turbulent, and trying times. She was born, so 
to speak, into one of the most widely-extended, 
the most bitter, and the most fatal of the family 
quarrels which have darkened the annals of the 
great in the whole history of mankind, namely, 
that long-protracted and bitter contest which 
was waged for so many years between the two 
great branches of the family of Edward the 
Third — the houses of York and Lancaster — ^for 
the possession of the kingdom of England. 
This dreadful quarrel lasted for more than a 
hundred years. It led to wars and commo- 
tions, to the sacking and burning of towns, to 
the ravaging of fruitful countries, and to atro- 
cious deeds of violence of every sort, almost 
without number. The internal peace of hund- 



14 King Kichard III. 

Terrible results of the quarrel. Origin of it. 

reds of thousands of families all over the land 
was destroyed by it for many generations. Hus- 
bands were alienated from wives, and parents 
from children by it. Murders and assassina- 
tions innumerable grew out of it. And what 
was it all about ? you will ask. It arose from 
the fact that the descendants of a certain king 
had married and intermarried among each oth- 
er in such a complicated manner that for sev- 
eral generations nobody could tell which of 
two different lines of candidates was fairly en- 
titled to the throne. The question was settled 
at last by a prince who inherited the claim on 
one side marrying a princess who was the heir 
on the other. Thus the conflicting interests of 
the two houses were combined, and the quarrel 
was ended. 

But, while the question was pending, it kept 
the country in a state of perpetual commotion, 
with feuds, and quarrels, and combats innumer- 
able, and all the other countless and indescrib- 
able horrors of civil war. 

The two branches of the royal family which 
were engaged in this quarrel were called the 
houses of York and Lancaster, from the fact 
that those were the titles of the fathers and 
heads of the two lines respectively. The Lan- 
caster party were the descendants of John of 



RiCHARD^s Mother. 17 

latricate questions of genealogy and descent 

Gaunt, Dake of Lancaster, and tlie York party- 
were the successors and lieirs of his brother Ed- 
mund, Duke of York. These men were both 
sons of Edward the Third, the King of England 
who reigned immediately before Richard the 
Second. A fall account of the family is given 
in our history of Richard the Secon d. Of course, 
they being brothers, their children were cousins, 
and they ought to have lived together in peace 
and harmony. And then, besides being relat- 
ed to each other through their fathers, the two 
branches of the family intermarried together, so 
as to make the relationships in the following 
generations so close and so complicated that it 
was almost impossible to disentangle them. In 
reading the history of those times, we find dukes 
or princes fighting each other in the field, or 
laying plans to assassinate each other, or striv- 
ing to see which should make the other a cap- 
tive, and shut him up in a dungeon for the rest 
of his days ; and yet these enemies, so exasper- 
ated and implacable, are very near relations — 
cousins, perhaps, if the relationship is reckoned 
in one way, and uncle and nephew if it is reck- 
oned in another. During the period of this 
struggle, all the great personages of the court, 
and all, or nearly all, the private families of the 
kingdom, and all the towns and the villages, 
B 



18 King Richard III. 

Lady Cecily Neville. She becomes Duchess of York. 

were divided and distracted by the dreadful 
feud. 

Eichard's mother, whose name, before she was 
married, was Lady Cecily Neville, was born into 
one side of this quarrel, and then afterward mar- 
ried into the other side of it. This is a speci- 
men of the way in which the contest became 
complicated in multitudes of cases. Lady Ceci- 
ly was descended from the Duke of Lancaster, 
but she married the Buke of York, in the third 
generation from the time when the quarrel 
began. 

Of course, upon her marriage. Lady Cecily 
Neville became the Duchess of York. Her 
husband was a man of great political import- 
ance in his day, and, like the other nobles of 
the ' land, was employed continually in wars 
and in expeditions of various kinds, in the 
course of which he was continually changing 
his residence from castle to castle all over En- 
gland, and sometimes making excursions into 
Ireland, Scotland, and France. His wife ac- 
companied him in many of these wanderings, 
and she led, of course, so far as external cir- 
cumstances were concerned, a wild and adven- 
turous life. She was, however, very quiet and 
domestic in her tastes, though proud and am- 
bitious in her aspirations, and she occupied her- 



Richard's Mothee. 19 

Her mode of life. Extract i'rom the ancient annals. 

self, wherever she . was, in regulating her hus- 
band's household, teaching and training her 
children, and in attending with great regularity 
and faithfulness to her religious duty, as relig- 
ious duty was understood in those days. 

The following is an account, copied from an 
ancient record, of the manner in which she spent 
her days at one of the castles where she was 
residing. 

" She useth to arise at seven of the clock, 
and hath readye her chapleyne to say with her 
mattins of the daye (that is, morning prayers), 
and when she is fully readye, she hath a lowe 
mass in her chamber. After mass she taketh 
something to recreate nature, and soe goeth to 
the chapelle, hearinge the divine service and two 
lowe masses. From thence to dynner, during 
the tyme of whih she hath a lecture of holy mat- 
ter (that is, reading from a religious book), either 
Hilton of Contemplative and Active Life, or 
some other spiritual and instructive work. After 
dynner she giveth audyence to all such as hath 
any matter to shrive unto her, by the space of 
one hower, and then sleepeth one quarter of an 
hower, and after she hath slept she contynueth 
in prayer until the first peale of even songe. 

''In the tyme of supper she reciteth the lee- 



20 King Eichard III. 

Lady Cecily's family. Names of the children. 

ture that was had at dynner to those that be in 
her presence. After supper she disposeth her- 
self to be famyliare with her gentlewomen to 
the seasoning of honest myrthe, and one hower 
before her going to bed she taketh a cup of 
wine, and after that goeth to her pry vie closette, 
and taketh her leave of God for all nighte, mak- 
inge end of her prayers for that daye, and by 
cighte of the clocke is in bedde." 

The going to bed at eight o'clock was in keep- 
ing with the other arrangements of the day, for 
we find by a record of the rules and orders of 
the duchess's household that the dinner-hour 
was eleven, and the supper was at four. 

This lady, Eichard's mother, during her mar- 
ried life, had no less than twelve children. 
Their names were Anne, Henry, Edward, Ed- 
mund, Elizabeth, Margaret, William, John, 
George, Thomas, Eichard, and Ursula. Thus 
Eichard, the subject of this volume, was the 
eleventh, that is, the last but one. A great 
many of these, Eichard's brothers and sisters, 
died while they were children. All the boys 
died thus except four, namely, Edward, Ed- 
mund, George, and Eichard. Of course, it is 
only with those four that we have any thing to 
do in the present narrative. 



Kichard'5 Mother. 21 

The boys' situation and mode of life. Their letters. 

Several of the other children, however, be- 
sides these three, lived for some time. They 
resided generally with their mother while they 
were young, but as they grew up they were 
often separated both from her and from their 
father — ^the duke, their father, being often called 
away from home, in the course of the various 
wars in which he was engaged, and his wife fre- 
quently accompanied him. On such occasions 
the boys were left at some castle or other, under 
the care of persons employed to take charge of 
their education. They used to write letters to 
their father from time to time, and it is curious 
that these letters are the earliest examples of 
letters from children to parents which have been 
preserved in history. Two of the boys were at 
one time under the charge of a man named 
Eichard Croft, and the boys thought that he 
was too strict with them. One of the letters, 
which has been preserved, was written to com- 
plain of this strictness, or, as the boy expressed 
it, "the odieux rule and demeaning" of their 
tutor, and also to ask for some "fyne bonnets," 
which the writer wished to have sent for him- 
self and for his little brother. There is another 
long letter extant which was written at nearly 
the same time. This letter was written, or at 
least signed, by two of the boys, Edward and 



22 King Eichakd III. 

Letter written by Edward and Edmund. 

Edmund, and was addressed to their father on 
the occasion of some of his victories. But, 
though signed by the boys' names, I suspect, 
from the lofty language in which it is express- 
ed, and from the many high-flown expressions 
of duty which it contains, that it was really 
written /or the boys by their mother or by one 
of their teachers. Of this, however, the reader 
can judge for himself on perusing the letter. 
In this copy the spelling is modernized so as to 
make it more intelligible, but the language is 
transcribed exactly from the original. 

"Eight high and mighty prince, our most 
worshipful and greatly redoubted lord and fa- 
ther : 

" In as lowly a wise as any sons can or may, 
we recommend us unto your good lordship, and 
please it to your highness to wit, that we have 
received your worshipful letters yesterday by 
your servant William Clinton, bearing date at 
York, the 29th day of May.* 

" By the which William, and by the relation 
of John Milewater, we conceive your worship- 
ful and victorious speed against your enemies, 

* There were no postal arrangements in those days, and 
all letters were sent by private, and generally by special mes- 
sengers. 



Eichard's Mother. 23 

The boyg congratulate their father on his victories. 

to their great shame, and to us the most comfort- 
able things that we desire to hear. Whereof 
we thank Almighty God of his gifts, beseech- 
ing him heartily to give you that good and co- 
tidian* fortune hereafter to know your enemies, 
and to have the victory over them. 

" And if it please your highness to know of 
our welfare, at the making of this letter we were 
in good health of body, thanked be God, be- 
seeching your good and gracious fatherhood for 
our daily blessing. 

"And whereas you command us by your 
said letters to attend specially to our learning 
in our young age, that should cause us to grow 
to honor and worship in our old age, please it 
your highness to wit, that we have attended to 
our learning since we came hither, and shall 
hereafter, by the which we trust to God your 
gracious lordship and good fatherhood shall be 
pleased. 

" Also we beseech your good lordship that 
it may please you to send us Harry Lovedeyne, 
groom of your kitchen, whose service is to us 
right agreeable ; and we will send you John 
Boyes to wait upon your lordship. 

"Right high and mighty prince, our most 
worshipful and greatly redoubted lard and fa- 

* Dailv. , 



24 King EiCHAKD III. 



Farther particulars about the boys. 



tlier, we beseecli Almiglity God to give you as ] 
good life and long as your own princely heart \ 
can best desire. | 

*' Written at your Castle of Ludlow, the 3d 
of June. • 

" Your humble sons, - 

"E. Marche. 

"E. EUTLAND." i 

The subscriptions E. March and E. Eutland I 
stand for Edward, Earl of March, and Edmund, ] 
Earl of Eutland; for, though these boys were i 
then only eleyen and twelve years of age re- : 
spectively, they were both earls. One of them, \ 
afterward, when he was about seventeen years 
old, was cruelly killed on the field of battle, i 
where he had been fighting with his father, as \ 
we shall see in another chapter. The other, i 
Edward, became King of England. He came \ 
immediately before Eichard the Third in the | 
line. j 

The letter which the boys wrote was super- | 
scribed as follows : i 

i 
*' To the right high and mighty prince, our ] 

most worshipful and greatly redoubted lord and \ 

father, the Duke of York, Protector and De- ' 

fender of England." 



Richard's Mother. 27 

The Castle of Ludlow^. Character of Richard's mother. 

The castle of Ludlow, where the hoys were 
residing when this letter was written, was a 
strong fortress built upon a rock in the western 
part of England, not far from Shrewsbury. The 
engraving is a correct representation of it, as it 
appeared at the period when those boys were 
there, and it gives a very good idea of the sort 
of place where kings and princes were accus- 
tomed to send their families for safety in those 
stormy times. Soon after the period of which 
we are speaking, Ludlow Castle was sacked and 
destroyed. The ruins of it, however, remain to 
the present day, and they are visited with much 
interest by great numbers of modern travelers. 

Lady Cecily, as we have already seen, was in 
many respects a noble woman, and a most faith- 
ful and devoted wife and mother; she was, 
however, of a very lofty and ambitious spirit, 
and extremely proud of her rank and station. 
Almost all her brothers and sisters — and the 
family was very large — were peers and peer- 
esses, and when she married Prince Richard 
Plantagenet, her heart beat high with exultation 
and joy to think that she was about to become 
a queen. She believed that Prince Richard 
was fully entitled to the throne at that time, 
for reasons which will be fully explained in the 
next chapter, and that, even if his claims should 



28 King Kichard III. 

Spirit of aristocracy. Eelative condition of the nobles and the people. 

not be recognized until the death of the king 
who was then reigning, they certainly would be 
so recognized then, and she would become an 
acknowledged queen, as she thought she was 
already one by right. So she felt greatly ex- 
alted in spirit, and moved and acted among all 
who surrounded her with an air of stately re- 
serve of the most grand and aristocratic char- 
acter. 

In fact, there has, perhaps, no time and place 
been known in the history of the world in 
which the spirit of aristocracy was more lofty 
and overbearing in its character than in En- 
gland during the period when the Plantagenet 
family were in prosperity and power. The no- 
bles formed then, far more strikingly than they 
do now, an entirely distinct and exalted class, 
that looked down upon all other ranks and gra- 
dations of society as infinitely beneath them. 
Their only occupation was war, and they re- 
garded all those who were engaged in any em- 
ployments whatever, that were connected with 
art or industry, with utter disdain. These last 
were crowded together in villages and towns 
which were formed of dark and narrow streets, 
and rude and comfortless dwellings. The no- 
bles lived in grand castles scattered here and 
there over the country, with extensive parks 



Eichard's Mother. 81 

Character of Richard's mother. The governesg. 

and pleasure-grounds around them, where they 
loved to marshal their followers, and inaugu- 
rate marauding expeditions against their rivals 
or their enemies. They were engaged in con- 
stant wars and contentions with each other, 
each thirsting for more power and more splen- 
dor than he at present enjoyed, and treating all 
beneath him with the utmost haughtiness and 
disdain. Eichard's mother exhibited this aris- 
tocratic loftiness of spirit in a very high de- 
gree, and it was undoubtedly in a great manner 
through the influence which she exerted over 
her children that they were inspired with those 
sentiments of ambition and love of glory to 
which the crimes and miseries into which sev- 
eral of them fell in their subsequent career were 
owing. 

To assist her in the early education of her 
children, Eichard's mother appointed one of the 
ladies of the court their governess. This gov- 
erness was a personage of very high rank, be- 
ing descended from the royal line. With the 
ideas which Lady Cecily entertained of the ex- 
alted position of her family, and of the future 
destiny of her children, none but a lady of high 
rank would be thought worthy of being in- 
trusted with such a charge. The name of the 
governess was Lady Mortimer. 



82 King Eichard III. 

Sir Eichard Croft, the boys' governor. 

The boys, as thej grew older, were placed 
under the charge of a governor. His name was 
Sir Eichard Croft. It is this Sir Eichard that 
they allnde to in their letter. He, too, was a 
person of high rank and of great military dis- 
tinction. The boys, however, thought him too 
strict and severe with them ; at least so it would 
seem, from the manner in which they speak of 
him in the letter. 

The governor and the governess appear to 
have liked each other very well, for after a time 
Sir Eichard offered himself to Lady Mortimer, 
and they were married. 

Besides Ludlow Castle, Prince Eichard had 
several other, strongholds, where his wife from 
time to time resided. Eichard, who was one 
of the youngest of the children, was born at 
one of these, called Fotheringay Castle ; but, 
before coming to the event of his birth, I must 
give some account of the history and fortunes 
of his father. 



Kichard's Father. 33 



Genealogy of Eichard Flantagenet. Tamily of Edward III. 



Chapter II. 
Kichard's Father. 

RICHARD'S father was a prince of the house 
of York. In the course of his hfe he was 
declared heir to the crown, but he died before 
he attained possession of it, thus leaving it for 
his children. The nature of his claim to the 
crown, and, indeed, the general relation of the 
various branches of the family to each other, 
will be seen by the genealogical table on the 
next page but one. 

Edward the Third, who reigned more than 
one hundred years before Eichard the Third, 
and his queen Philippa, left at their decease four 
sons, as appears by the table.* They had other 
children besides these, but it was only these 
four, namely, Edward, Lionel, John, and Ed- 
mund, whose descendants were involved in the 
quarrels for the succession. The others either 
died young, or else, if they arrived at maturity, 
the lines descending from them soon became 
extinct. 

Of the four that survived, the oldest was Ed- 

* See page 35. 

c 



34 King Eichaed III. [A.D.1415. 

Succession of heirs ia the family of Edward III. 



ward, called in history tlie Black Prince. A 
full account of his life and adventures is given i 
in our history of Eichard the Second. He diedll 
before his father, and so did not attain to the! 
crown. He, however, left his son Eichard his| 
heir, and at Edward's death Eichard became |' 
king. Eichard reigned twenty years, and then, I 
in consequence of his numerous vices and I 
crimes, and of his general mismanagement, he 
was deposed, and Henry, the son of John of 
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, Edward's third son, 
ascended the throne in his stead. 

I^ow, as appears by the table, John of Grannt ! 
was the third of the four sons, Lionel, Duke of 
Clarence, being the second. The descendants 
of Lionel would properly have come before 
those of John in the succession, but it happen- 
ed that the only descendants of Lionel were 
Philippa, a daughter, and Eoger, a grandchild, 
who was at this time an infant. Neither of 
these were able to assert their claims, although 
m theory their claims were acknowledged to 
be prior to those of the descendants of John. 
The people of England, however, were so desir- 
ous to be rid of Eichard, that they were will- 
ing to submit to the reign of any member of 
the royal family who should prove strong 
enough to dispossess him. So they accepted 



Eichard's Father. 



S5 



Genealogical table of the houses of York and Lancaster. 



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86 King Eichard III. [A.D.1415. 



Union of the houses of Clarence and York. 



Henry of Lancaster, who ascended the throne 
as Henry the Fourth, and he and his successors ! 
in. the Lancastrian line, Henry the Fifth andi; 
Henry the Sixth, held the throne for many i 
years. 

Still, though the people of England general- 1 
ly acquiesced in this, the families of the other i 
brothers, namely, of Lionel and Edmund, called 
generally the houses of Clarence and of York, 
were not satisfied. They combined together, 
and formed a great many plots and conspira- 
cies against the house of Lancaster, and many 
insurrections and wars, and many cruel deeds 
of violence and murder grew out of the quar- 
rel. At length, to strengthen their alliance 
more fully, Eichard, the second son of Edmund 
of York, married Anne, a descendant of the 
Clarence line. The other children, who came 
before these, in the two lines, soon afterward 
died, leaving the inheritance of both to this pair. 
Their son was Eichard, the father of Eichard 
the Third. He is called Eichard Plantagenet, 
Duke of York. On the death of his father and 
mother, he, of course, became the heir not only 
of the immense estates and baronial rights of 
both the lines from which he had descended, 
but also of the claims of the older line to the ^ 
crown of England. 



A.D.1415.] Eichard's Father. 87 

Kichard Flantagenet a piisoner. King Henry VI. 

The successive generations of these three 
lines, down to the period of the union of the 
second and fourth, cutting off the third, is 
shown clearly in the table. 

Of course, the Lancaster line were much 
alarmed at the combination of the claims of 
their rivals. King Henry the Fifth was at that 
period on the throne, and, by the time that 
Eichard Pla,ntagenet was three years old, un- 
der pretense of protecting him from danger, he 
caused him to be shut up in a castle, and kept 
a close prisoner there. 

Time rolled on. King Henry the Fifth died, 
and Henry the Sixth succeeded him. Eichard 
Plantagenet was still watched and guarded; but 
at length, by the time that Eichard was thir- 
teen years old, the power aiid influence of his 
branch of the royal family, or rather those of 
the two branches from which, combined, he 
was descended, were found to be increasing, 
while that of the house of Lancaster was de- 
clining. After a time he was brought out from 
his imprisonment, and restored to his rank and 
station. King Henry the Sixth was a man of 
a very weak and timid mind. He was quite 
young too, being, in fact, a mere child when 
he began to reign, and every thing went wrong 
with his government. While he was young, he 



88 



King Eichard III. [A.D.1425. 



His gentle and quiet character. 



Portrait. 



could, of course, do nothing, and when he grew 
older he was too gentle and forbearing to con- 
trol the rough and turbulent spirits around him. 
He had no taste for war and bloodshed, but 
loved retirement and seclusion, and, as he ad- 
vanced in years, he fell into the habit of spend- 
ing a great deal of his time in acts of piety and 
devotion, performed according to the ideas and 
customs of the times. The annexed engraving, 
representing him as he appeared when he was 




KENKY VI. IN ma CHILDIIOOB. 



A.D.1425.] Richard's Father. 89 

Discontent of the people. Arrangements made for the succession. 

a boy, is copied from the ancient portraits, and 
well expresses the mild and gentle traits which 
marked his disposition and character. 

Such, being the disposition and character of 
Henry, every thing during his reign went 
wrong, and this state of things, growing worse 
and worse as he advanced in life, greatly en- 
couraged and strengthened the house of York 
in the effort which they were inclined to make 
to bring their own branch of the family to the 
throne. 

" See," said they, "what we come to by al- 
lowing a line of usurpers to reign. These Hen- 
rys of Lancaster are all descended from a young- 
er son, while the heirs of the older are living, 
and have a right to the throne. Eichard Plan- 
tagenet is the true and proper heir. He is 
a man of energy. Let us make him king." 

But the people of England, though they grad- 
ually came to desire the change, were not will- 
ing yet to plunge the country again into a state 
of civil war for the purpose of making it. They 
would not disturb Henry, they said, while he 
continued to live ; but there was nobody to suc- 
ceed him, and, when he died, Richard Plantag- 
enet should be king. 

Henry was married at this time, but he had 
no children. The name of his wife was Mar- 



40 



King Riciiaed III. [A.D.1425. 



Character of Margaret of Anjon. 



garet of Anjou. She was a very extraordinary 
and celebrated woman. Though very beauti- 
ful in person, she was as energetic and mascu- 
line in character as her poor husband was ef- 
feminate and weak, and she took every thing 




QUEEN MAEGABET OF ANJOU, WIFE OF UENEY VI. 

into her own hands. This, however, made mat- 
ters worse instead of better, and the whole coun- 



A.D. 1454] Eichard's Father. 41 

No children. Feeble and failing capacity of the king. 

try seemed to rejoice that she had no children, 
for thus, on the death of Henry, the Hne would 
become extinct, and Eichard Plantagenet and 
his descendants would succeed, as a matter of 
course, in a quiet and peaceful manner. As 
Henry and Margaret had now been married 
eight or nine years without any children, it was 
supposed that they never would have any. 

Accordingly, Eichard Plantagenet was uni- 
versally looked upon as Henry's successor, 
and the time seemed to be drawing nigh when 
the change of dynasty was to take place. Hen- 
ry's health was very feeble. He seemed to be 
rapidly declining. His mind was affected, too, 
quite seriously, and he sometimes sank into a 
species of torpor from which nothing could 
arouse him. 

Indeed, it became difficult to carry on the 
government in his name, for the king sank at 
last into such a state of imbecility that it was 
impossible to obtain from him the least sign or 
token that would serve, even for form's sake, as 
an assent on his part to the royal decrees. At 
one time Parliament appointed a commission to 
visit him in his chamber, for the purpose of as- 
certaining the state that he was in, and to see 
also whether they could not get some token 
from him which they could consider as his as- 



42 King Eichard III. 



Eichard Flantagenet formally declared the heir. 

sent to certain measures which it was deemed 
important to take ; but they could not get from 
the king any answer or sign of any kind, not- 
withstanding all that they could do or say. 
They retired for a time, and afterward came 
back again to make a second attempt, and then, 
as an ancient narrative records the story, "they 
moved and stirred him by all the ways and 
means that they could think of to have an an- 
swer of the said matter, but they could have no 
answer, word nor sign, and therefore, with sor- 
rowful hearts, came away." 

This being the state of things, Parliament 
thought it time to make some definite arrange- 
ments for the succession. Accordingly, they 
passed a formal and solemn enactment declar- 
ing Eichard Flantagenet heir presumptive of 
the crown, and investing him with the rank and 
privileges pertaining to that position. They 
also appointed him, for the present, Protector 
and defender of the realm. 

Eichard, the subject of this volume, was at 
this time an infant two years old. The other 
ten children had been born at various periods 
before. 

It was now, of course, expected that Henry 
would soon die, and that then Eichard Flan- 
tagenet would at once ascend the throne, ac- 



Richard's Father. 43 

Unexpected birth of a prince. Suspicions. 

knowledged by the whole reahn as the sole and 
rightful heir. But these expectations were sud- 
denly disturbed, and the whole kingdom was 
thrown into a state of great excitement and 
alarm by the news of a very unexpected and 
important event which occurred at this time, 
namely, the birth of a child to Margaret, the 
queen. This event awakened all the latent 
fires of civil dissension and discord anew. The 
Lancastrian party, of course, at once rallied 
around the infant prince, who, they claimed, 
was the rightful heir to the crown. They be- 
gan at once to reconstruct and strengthen their 
plans, and to shape their measures with a view 
to retain the kingdom in the Lancaster line. 
On the other hand, the friends of the combined 
houses of Clarence and York declared that they 
would not acknowledge the new-comer as the 
rightful heir. They did not believe that he was 
the son of the king, for he, as they said, had 
been for a long time as good as dead. Some 
said that they did not even believe that the 
child was Margaret's son. There was a story 
that she had had a child, but that he was very 
weak and puny, and that he had died soon aft- 
er his birth, and that Margaret had cunningly 
substituted another child in his place, in order 
to retain her position and power by having a 



44 King Eichaed III. 

Various plana and speculations. Richard's hopes. 

supposed son of hers reign as king after her hus- 
band should die. Margaret was a v/oman of so 
ambitious and unscrupulous a character, that 
she was generally believed capable of adopting 
any measures, however criminal and bold, to 
accomplish her ends. 

But, notwithstanding these rumors, Parlia- 
ment acknowledged the infant as his father's 
son and heir. He was named Edward, and cre- 
ated at once Prince of Wales, which act was a 
solemn acknowledgment of his right to the suc- 
cession. Prince Richard made no open oppo- 
sition to this ; for, although he and his friends 
maintained that he had a right to the crown, 
they thought that the time had not yet come 
for openly advancing their claim, so for the pres- 
ent they determined to be quiet. The child 
might not survive, and his father, the king, be- 
ing in so helpless and precarious a condition, 
might cease to live at any time ; and if it should 
so happen that both the father and the child 
should die, Richard would, of course, succeed at 
once, without any question. He accordingly 
thought it best to wait a little while, and see 
what turn things would take. 

He soon found that things were taking the 
wrong turn. The child lived, and appeared 
likely to continue to live, and, what was per- 



A,D.1459.] Richakd's Father. 45 

Progress of the formation of parties. 

haps worse for him, the king, instead of declin- 
ing more and more, began to revive. In a short 
time he was able to attend to business again, at 
least so far as to express his assent to measures 
prepared for him by his ministers. Prince Rich- 
ard was accordingly called upon to resign his 
protectorate. He thought it best to yield to this 
proposal, and he did so, and thus the govern- 
ment was once more in Henry's hands. 

Things went on in this way for two or three 
years, but the breach between the two great 
parties was all the time widening. Difficulties 
multiplied in number and increased in magni- 
tude. The country took sides. Armed forces 
were organized on one side and on the other, 
and at length Prince Richard openly claimed 
the crown as his right. This led to a long and 
violent discussion in Parliament. The result, 
was, that a majority was obtained to vote in fa- 
vor of Prince Richard's right. The Parliament 
decreed, however, that the existing state of 
things should not be disturbed so long as Hen- 
ry continued to live, but that at Henry's death 
the crown should descend, not to little Edward 
his son, the infant Prince of Wales, "but to 
Prince Richard Plantagenet and his descend- 
ants forever. 

Queen Margaret was at this time at a castle 



46 Kma EicHARD III. [A.D.1460. 

Queen Margaret's resolution and energy. Wars. 

in Wales, where she had gone with the child, 
in order to keep him in a place of safety while 
these stormy discnssions were pending. When 
she heard that Parliament had passed a law set- 
ting aside the claims of her child, she declared 
that she would never submit to it. She imme- 
diately sent messengers all over the northern 
part of the kingdom, summoning the faithful 
followers of the king every where to arm them- 
selves and assemble near the frontier. She her- 
self went to Scotland to ask for aid. The King 
of Scotland at that time was a child, but he was 
related to the Lancastrian family, his grand- 
mother having been a descendant of John of 
Graunt, the head of the Lancaster line. He was 
too young to take any part in the war, but his 
mother, who was acting as regent, famished 
Margaret with troops. Margaret, putting her- 
self at the head of these forces, marched across 
the frontier into England, and joined herself 
there to the other forces which had assembled 
in answer to her summons. 

In the mean time. Prince Eichard had assem- 
bled his adherents too, and had commenced his 
march to the northward to meet his enemies. 
He took his two oldest sons with him, the two 
that wrote the letter quoted in the last chapter. 
One of these you will recollect was Edward, 



A.D.1461.] Eichakd's Father. 47 

Tlichard's tAvo brothers, Edward and Edmund. 



Earl ot Marche, and the second was Edmund, 
Earl of Entland. Edward was now abont eight- 
een years of age, and his brother Edmund 
about seventeen. One would have said that at 
this period of life they were altogether too 
young to be exposed to the hardships, fatigues, 
and dangers of a martial campaign ; but it was 
the custom in those times for princes and no- 
bles to be taken with their fathers to fields of 
battle at a very early age. And these youthful 
warriors were really of great service too, for 
the interest which they inspired among all ranks 
of the army was so great, especially when their 
rank was very high, that they were often the 
means of greatly increasing the numbers and 
the enthusiasm of their fathers' followers. 

Edward, indeed, was in this instance deemed 
old enough to be sent off on an independent 
service, and so, while the prince moved forward 
with the main body of his army toward the 
north, he dispatched Edward, accompanied by 
a suitable escort, to the westward, toward the 
frontiers of Wales, to assemble all the armed 
men that he could find in that part of the king- 
dom who were disposed to espouse his cause. 
Edmund, who was a year younger than Ed- 
ward, went with his father. 

The prince proceeded to the city of York, 



48 King Eichaed III. [A.D.1461. 

The walls of York. rrince Lichard at York. 

which was then a fortified place of great strength. 
The engraving gives a very good idea of the 
appearance of the walls in those times. These 
walls remain, indeed, almost entire at the pres- 
ent day, and they are visited a great deal by 
tourists and travelers, being regarded with much 
interest as furnishing a very complete and well- 
preserved specimen of the mural fortifications 
of the Middle Ages. Such walls, however, 
would be almost entirely useless now as means 
of defense, since they would not stand at all 
against an attack from modern artillery. 

The great church seen over the walls, in the 
heart of the city, is the famous York minster, 
one of the grandest Cathedral churches in En- 
gland. It was a hundred and fifty years in 
building, and it was completed about two cen- 
turies before Eichard's day. 

When Prince Eichard reached York, he en- 
tered the town, and established himself there, 
with a view of waiting till his son should ar- 
rive with the re-enforcements which he had 
been sent to seek in the western part of England. 

While he was there, and before the re-enforce- 
ments came, the queen, at the head of her army 
from Scotland, which was strengthened, more- 
over, by the troops which she had obtained in 
the north of England, came marching on down 




I, 



I 



A.D.1461.] Kichard's Father. 61 

Boldness of the queen. The advice of Richard' s counselors. 

the couiitry in great force. When she came 
into the neighborhood of York, she encamped, 
and then sent messengers to Prince Eichard, 
taunting and deriding him for having shut him- 
self up within fortified walls, and daring him to 
come out into the open field and fight her. 

The prince's counselors advised him to do no 
such thing. One of them in particular, a cer- 
tain Sir Davy Hall, who was an old and faith- 
ful ofQ.cer in the prince's service, urged him to 
pay no attention to Queen Margaret's taunts. 

"We a.re not strong enough yet," said he, 
"to meet the army which she has assembled. 
We must wait till our re-enforcements come. 
By going out now we shall j)ut our cause in 
great peril, and all to no purpose whatever." 

"Ah! Davy, Davy," said the prince, "hast 
thou loved me so long, and now wouldst thou 
have me dishonored ? When I was regent in 
Normandy, thou never sawest me keep fortress, 
even when the dauphin himself, with all his 
power, came to besiege me.* I always, like a 
man, came forth to meet him, instead of remain- 
ing within my walls, like a bird shut up in a 

* In former years Prince Richard had acted as viceroy of 
the English possessions in France, under King Henry, and 
while there he had been engaged in wars with the King of 
France, and with the dauphin, his son. 



52 King Kichard III. [A.D.1461. 

Richard's reply. The battle. Eichard defeated. 

cage. Now if I did not then keep myself shut 
up for fear of a great, strong prince, do you 
think I will now, for dread of a scolding woman, 
whose weapons are only her tongue and her 
nails, and thus give people occasion to say that 
I turned dastard before a woman, when no man 
had ever been able to make me fear? No, 
I will never submit to such disgrace. I would 
rather die in honor than live in shame; and 
so the great numbers of our enemies do not de- 
ter me in the least ; they rather encourage me ; 
therefore, in the name of Grod and St. Greorge, 
advance my banner, for I am determined that I 
will go out and fight them, if I go alone." 

So Prince Richard came forth from the gates 
of York at the head of his columns, and rode on 
toward the queen's camp. Edmund went with 
him. Edmund was under the care of his tutor, 
Eobert Aspell, who was charged to keep close 
to his side, and to watch over him in the most 
vigilant manner. The- army of the queen was 
at some distance from York, at a place called 
Wakefield. Both parties, as is usual in dvil 
wars, were extremely exasperated against each 
other, and the battle was desperately fought. 
It was very brief, however, and Richard's troops 
were defeated. Richard himself was taken pris- 
oner. Edmund endeavored to escape. His 



A.D.1461.] Richard's Father. 55 

Death of Edmuad. Death of Eichard. 

tutor endeavored to hurry him ofif the field, but 
he was stopped on the way by a certain noble- 
man of the queen's party, named Lord Clifford. 
The poor boy begged hard for mercy, but Clif- 
ford killed him on the spot. 

The prince's army, when they found that the 
battle had gone against them, and that their 
captain was a prisoner, fled in all directions over 
the surrounding country, leaving great numbers 
dead upon the field. The prince himself, as 
soon as he was taken, was disarmed on the field, 
and all the leaders of the queen's army, includ- 
ing, as the most authentic accounts relate, the 
queen herself, gathered around him in wild ex- 
ultation. They carried him to a mound form- 
ed by an ant-hill, which they said, in mockery, 
should be his throne. They placed him upon 
it with taunts and derision. They made a 
crown for him of knotted grass, and put it upon 
his head, and then made mock obeisances be- 
fore him, saying, " Hail ! king without a king- 
dom. Hail ! prince, without a people." 

After having satisfied themselves with their 
taunts and revilings, the party killed their pris- 
oner and cut off his head. They set his head 
upon the point of a lance, and in this way pre- 
sented it to Queen Margaret. The queen or- 
dered the head to be decorated with a paper 



56 King Kichaed III. [A.D.1461. 



The head set upon a pole at York. 



crown, and then to be carried to York, and set 
up at tlie gates of that citj upon a tall pole. 

Thus was little Kichard, the subject of this 
narrative, left fatherless. He was at this period 
between eight and nine years old. 



Childhood. 57 



Condition of young Kichard in his childhood. 



Chapter III. 

The Childhood of Kichard III. 

"Y^OUNG Eichard, as was said at the close of 
-^ the last chapter, was of a very tender age 
when his father and his brother Edmund were 
killed at the battle of Wakefield. He was at 
that time only about eight years old. It is very 
evident too, from what has been already related 
of the history of his father and mother, that 
during the whole period of his childhood and 
youth he must have passed through very stormy 
times. It is only a small portion of the life of 
excitement, conflict, and alarm which was led 
by his father that there is space to describe in 
this volume. So unsettled and wandering a 
life did his father and mother lead, that it is not 
quite certain in which of the various towns and 
castles that from time to time they made their 
residence, he was born. It is supposed, how- 
ever, that he was born in the Castle of Fother- 
ingay, in the year 1452. His father was killed 
in 1461, which would make Eichard, as has al- 
ready been said, about eight or nine years old 
at that time. 



58 King Eiciiard III. 

strange tales in respect to his birth. 

There were a great many strange tales re- 
lated in subsequent years in respect to Eicli- 
ard's birth. He became such, a monster, mor- 
ally, when he grew to be a man, that the people 
believed that he was born a monster in person. 
The story was that he came into the world very 
ugly in face and distorted in form, and that his 
hair and his teeth were already grown. These 
were considered as portents of the ferociousness 
of temper and character which he was subse- 
quently to manifest, and of the unnatural and 
cruel crimes which he would live to commit. 
It is very doubtful, however, whether any of 
these stories are true. It is most probable that 
at his birth he looked like any other child. 

There were a great many periods of intense 
excitement and terror in the family history be^ 
fore the great final calamity at Wakefield when 
Eichard's father and his brother Edmund were 
killed. At these times the sole reliance of the 
prince in respect to the care of the younger 
children was upon Lady Cecily, their mother. 
The older sons went with their father on the 
various martial expeditions in which he was en- 
gaged. They shared with him the hardships 
and dangers of his conflicts, and the triumph 
and exultations of his victories. The younger 
children, however, remained in seclusion with 



Childhood. 69 



Dangers to which Richard was exposed in his childhood. 

their mother, sometimes in one place and some- 
times in another, wherever there was, for the 
time being, the greatest promise of security. 

Indeed, during the early childhood of Eich- 
ard, the changes and vicissitudes through which 
the family passed were so sudden and violent 
in their character as sometimes to surpass the 
most romantic tales of fiction. At one time, 
while Lady Cecily was residing at the Castle of 
Ludlow with Kichard and some of the younger 
children, a party of her husband's enemies, the 
Lancastrians, appeared suddenly at the gates of 
the town, and, before Prince Eichard's party 
had time to take any ef&cient measures for de- 
fense, the town and the castle were both taken. 
The Lancastrians had expected to find Prince 
Eichard himself in the castle, but he was not 
there. They were exasperated by their disap- 
pointment, and in their fury they proceeded to 
ransack all the rooms, and to destroy every 
thing that came into their hands. In some of 
the inner and more private apartments they 
found Lady Cecily and her children. They 
immediately seized them all, made them pris- 
oners, and carried them away. By King Hen- 
ry's orders, they were placed in close custody 
in another castle in the southern part of En- 
gland, and all tho property, both of the prince 



60 KiN-G ElCHARD III. 

Extraordinary vicissitudes ia the life of his mother. 

and of Lady Cecily, was confiscated. While 
the mother and the younger children were thus 
closely shnt up and reduced to helpless destitu- 
tion, the father and the older sons were obliged 
to fly from the country to save their lives. In 
less than three months after this time these 
same exiled and apparently ruined fugitives 
were marching triumphantly through the coun- 
try, at the head of victorious troops, carrying 
all before them. Lady Cecily and her children 
were set at liberty, and restored to their prop- 
erty and their rights, while King. Henry him- 
self, whose captives they had been, was himself 
made captive, and brought in durance to Lon- 
don, and Queen Margaret and her son were in 
their turn compelled to fly from the realm to 
save their lives. 

This last change in the condition of public 
affairs took place only a short time before the 
great final contest between Prince Eichard of 
York, King Eichard's father, and the family of 
Henry, when the prince lost his life at Wake- 
field, as described in the last chapter. 

Of course, young Eichard, being brought up 
amid these scenes of wild commotion, and ac- 
customed from childhood to witness the most 
cruel and remorseless conflicts between branch- 
es of the same family, was trained by them to 



Childhood. 63 



The castles and palaces belonging to the house of York. 

be ambitious, daring, and unscrupnlous in re- 
spect to tlie means to be used in circumventing 
or destroying an enemy. The seed thus sown 
produced in subsequent years most dreadful 
fruit, as will be seen more fully in the sequel 
of his history. 

There were a great many hereditary castles 
belonging to the family of York, many of which 
had descended from father to son for many gen- 
erations. Some of these castles were strong for 
tresses, built in wild and inaccessible retreats, 
and intended to be used as places of temporary 
refuge, or as the rallying-points and rendez- 
vous of bodies of armed men. Others were 
better adapted for the purposes of a private res- 
idence, being built with some degree of refer- 
ence to the comfort of the inmates, and sur- 
rounded with gardens and grounds, where the 
ladies and the children who were left in them 
could find recreation and amusement adapted 
to their age and sex. 

It was in such a castle as this, near London, 
that Lady Cecily and her younger children were 
residing when her husband went to the north- 
VsTard to meet the forces of the queen, as related 
in the last chapter. Here Lady Cecily lived in 
great state, for she thought the time was draw- 
ing nigh when her husband would be raised to 



64 King Eichard III. 

Situation of Lady Cecily at the time of her husband' s death. 

the throne. Indeed, she considered him as al- 
ready the true and rightful sovereign of the 
realm, and she believed that the hour would 
very soon come when his claims would be uni- 
versally acknowledged, and when she herself 
would be Queen of England, and her boys royal 
princes, and, as such, the objects of universal at- 
tention and regard. She instilled these ideas 
continually into the minds of the children, and 
she exacted the utmost degree of subserviency 
and submission toward herself and toward them 
on the part of all around her. 

While she was thus situated in her palace 
near London, awaiting every day the arrival of 
a messenger from the north announcing the 
final victory of her husband over all his foes, 
she was one day thunderstruck, and overwhelm- 
ed with grief and despair, by the tidings that 
her husband had been defeated, and that he 
himself, and the dear son who had accompa- 
nied him, and was just arriving at maturity, 
had been ignominiously slain. The queen, 
too, her most bitter foe, now exultant and vic- 
torious, was advancing triumphantly toward 
London. 

Not a moment was to be lost. Lady Cecily 
had with her, at this time, her two youngest 
sons, George and Eichard. She made immedi- 



Childhood. 65 



Lady Cecily senfls the children to tho Contiiient. 

ate arrangements for her flight. It happened 
that the Earl of Warwick, who was at this time 
the Lord High Admiral, and who, of course, had 
command of the seas between England and the 
Continent, was a relative and friend of Lady 
Cecily's. He was at this time in London. Lady 
Cecily applied to him to assist her in making 
her escape. He consented, and, with his aid, 
she herself, with her two children and a small 
number of attendants, escaped secretly from 
London, and made their way to the southern 
coast. There Lady Cecily put the children and 
the attendants on board a vessel, by which they 
were conveyed to the coast of Holland. On 
landing there, they were received by the prince 
of the country, who was a friend of Lady Ceci- 
ly, and to whose care she commended them. 
The prince received them with great kindness, 
and sent them to the city of Utrecht, where he 
established them safely in one of his palaces, 
and appointed suitable tutors and governors 
to superintend their education. Here it was 
expected that they would remain for several 
years. 

Their mother did not go with them to Hol- 
land. Her fears in respect to remaining in 
England were not for herself, but only for her 
helpless children. For herself, her only im- 
E 



66 King Eichard III. 

Situation of Lady Cecily and of her oldest son. 

pulse was to face and brave the dangers which 
threatened her, and triumph over them. So 
she went boldly back to London, to await there 
whatever might occur. 

Besides, her oldest son was still in England, 
and she could not forsake him. You will rec- 
ollect that, when his father went north to meet 
the forces of Queen Margaret, he sent his oldest 
son, Edward, Earl of Marche, to the western part 
of England, to obtain re-enforcements. Edward 
was at Gloucester when the tidings came to him 
of his father's death. Gloucester is on the west- 
ern confines of England, near the southeastern 
borders of "Wales. Now, of course, since her 
husband was dead, all Lady Cecily's ambition, 
and all her hopes of revenge were concentrated 
in him. She wished to be at hand to counsel 
him, and to co-operate with him by all the 
means in her power. How she succeeded in 
these plans, and how, by means of them, he soon 
became King of England, will appear in the 
next chapter. 



A.D.1461.] EdwardIY. 67 

Edward now becomes heir to the cro'WTi. 



Chapter IY. 

Accession of Edward IY., Rich- 
ard's ELDER Brother. 

EICHARD'S brother Edward, as lias already 
been remarked, was at Grloucester when 
he heard the news of his father death. This 
news, of course, made a great change in his 
condition. To his mother, the event was pure- 
ly and simply a calamity, and it could awaken 
no feelings in her heart but those of sorrow and 
chagrin. In Edward's mind, on the other hand, 
the first emotions of astonishment and grief 
were followed immediately by a burst of ex- 
ultation and pride. He, of course, as now the 
oldest surviving son, succeeded at once to all 
the rights and titles which his father had en- 
joyed, and among these, according to the ideas 
which his mother had instilled into his mind, 
was the right to the crown. His heart, there- 
fore, when the first feeling of grief for the loss 
of his father had subsided, bounded with joy as 
he exclaimed, 

" So now /am the King of England." 

The enthusiasm which he felt extended itself 



68 King Eichard III. 

His energy and decision. He marches to intercept Margaret. 

at once to all around him. He immediately 
made preparations to put liimself at the head of 
his troops, and march to the eastward, so as to 
intercept Queen Margaret on her way to London, 
for he knew that she would, of course, now press 
forward toward the capital as fast as possible. 

He accordingly set out. at once upon his 
march, and, as he went on, he found that the 
number of his followers increased very rapidly. 
The truth was, that the queen's party, by their 
murder of Eichard, and of young Edmund his 
son, had gone altogether too far for the good of 
their own cause. The people, when they heard 
the tidings, were indignant at such cruelty. 
Those who belonged to the party of the house 
of York, instead of being intimidated by the se- 
verity of the measure, were exasperated at the 
brutality of it, and they were all eager to join 
the young duke, Edward, and help him to 
avenge his father's and his brother^s death. 
Those who had been before on the side of the 
house of Lancaster were discouraged and re- 
pelled, while those who had been doubtful were 
now ready to declare against the queen. 

It is in this way that all excesses in the hour 
of victory defeat the very ends they were in- 
tended to subserve. They weaken the perpe- 
trators, and not the subjects of them. 



Edward IV. 69 

Warwick. Battle with the queen. Warwick defeated. 

In the mean time, while young Edward, at 
the head of his army, was marching on from 
the westward toward London to intercept the 
queen, the Earl of Warwick, who has already 
been mentioned as a friend of Lady Cecily, had 
also assembled a large force near London, and 
he was now advancing toward the northward. 
The poor king was with him. Nominally, the 
king was in command of the expedition, and 
every thing was done in his name, but really 
he was a forlorn and helpless prisoner, forced 
wholly against his will — so far as the feeble de- 
gree of intellect which remained to him enabled 
him to exercise a will — to seem to head an en- 
terprise directed against his own wife, and his 
best and strongest friend. 

The armies of the queen and of the Earl of 
"Warwick advanced toward each other, until 
they met at last at a short distance north of 
London. A desperate battle was fought, and 
the queen's party were completely victorious. 
When night came on, the Earl of Warwick 
found that he was beaten at every point, and 
that his troops had fled in all directions, leaving 
thousands of the dead and dying all along the 
road sides. The camp had been abandoned, and 
there was no time to save any thing ; even the 
poor king was left behind, and the officers of 



70 King Eichard III. 

Margaret regains possession of her husband. 

the queen's army foimd liim in a tent, with only 
one attendant. Of course, the queen was over- 
joyed at recovering possession of her husband, 
not merely on his own account personally, but 
also because she could now act again directly 
in his name. So she prepared a proclamation, 
by which the king revoked all that he had 
done while in the hands of Warwick, on the 
groimd that he had been in durance, and had 
not acted of his own free will, and also declared 
Edward a traitor, and offered a large reward for 
his apprehension. 

The queen was now once more filled with 
exultation and joy. Her joy would have been 
complete were it not that Edward himself was 
still to be met, for he was all this time advanc- 
ing from the westward ; she, however, thought 
that there was not much to be feared from such 
a boy, Edward being at this time only about 
nineteen years of age. So the queen moved on 
toward London, flushed with the victory, and 
exasperated with the opposition which she had 
met with. Her soldiers were under very little 
control, and they committed great excesses. 
They ravaged the country, and plundered with- 
out mercy all those whom they considered as 
belonging to the opposite party ; they commit- \ 
ted, too, many atrocious acts of cruelty. It is | 



A.D.1461.] EdwardIY. 71 

Excesses committed by the queen's troops. 

always thus in civil war. In foreign wars, arm- 
ies are mucli more easily kept under control. 
Troops march through a foreign territory, feel- 
ing no personal spite or hatred against the in- 
habitants of it, for they think it is a matter of 
course that the people should defend their coun- 
try and resist invaders. But in a civil war, the 
men of each party feel a special personal hate 
against every individual that does not belong 
to their side, and in periods of actual conflict 
this hatred becomes a rage that is perfectly un- 
controllable. 

Accordingly, as the queen and her troops ad- 
vanced, they robbed and murdered all who came 
in their way, and they filled the whole country 
with terror. They even seized and plundered 
a convent, which was a species of sacrilege. 
This greatly increased the general alarm. ' ' The 
wretches !" exclaimed the people, when they 
heard the tidings, "nothing is sacred in their 
eyes." The people of London were particu- 
larly alarmed. They thought there was danger 
that the city itself would be given up to plun- 
der if the queen's troops gained admission. So 
they all turned against her. She sent one day 
into the town for a supply of provisions, and 
the authorities, perhaps thinking themselves 
bound by their official duty to obey orders of 



72 King Kichard III. i 

Edward advances. He enters London. His welcome, j 

this kind coming in tlie king's name, loaded up ; 
some wagons and sent them forth, but the peo- \ 
pie raised a mob, and stopped the wagons at ; 
the gates, refusing to let them go on. ' 

In the mean time, Edward, growing every : 
hour stronger as he advanced, came rapidly on ! 
toward London. He was joined at length by ; 
the Earl of Warwick and the remnant of the ; 
force which remained to the earl after the bat- \ 
tie which he had fought with the queen. The ; 
queen, now finding that Edward's strength was ; 
becoming formidable, did not dare to meet him ; j 
so she retreated toward the north again. Ed- \ 
ward, instead of pursuing her, advanced direct- j 
ly toward London. The people threw open the ; 
gates to him, and welcomed him as their deliv- \ 
erer. They thronged the streets to look upon ; 
him as he passed, and made the air ring with | 
their loud and long acclamations. 

There was, indeed, every thing in the circum- i 
stances of the case to awaken excitement and i 
emotion. Here was a boy not yet out of his ■ 
teens, extremely handsome in appearance and j 
agreeable in manners, who had taken the field j 
in command of a very large force to avenge the \ 
cruel death of his father and brother, and was : 
now coming boldly, at the head of his troops, 
into the very capital of the king and queen un^ 



A.D.1461.] Edward I Y. 73 

Excitement in London. Measures taken by Edward. 

der whose authority his father and brother had 
been killed. 

The most extraordinary circnmstance con- 
nected with these proceedings was, that during 
all this time Henry was still acknowledged by 
every one as the actual king. Edward and his 
friends maintained, indeed, that he, Edward, 
was entitled to reign, but no one pretended that 
any thing had yet been done which could have 
the legal effect of putting him upon the throne. 
There was, however, -now a general expectation 
that the time for the formal deposition of Hen- 
ry was near, and in and around London all was 
excitement and confusion. The people from 
the surrounding towns flocked every day into 
the city to see what they could see, and to hear 
what they could hear. They thronged the 
streets whenever Edward appeared in public, 
eager to obtain a glimpse of him. 

At length, a few days after Edward entered 
the city, his counselors and friends deemed that 
the time had come for action. Accordingly, 
they made arrangements for a grand review in 
a large open field. Their design was by this 
review to call together a great concourse of 
spectators. A vast assembly convened accord- 
ing to their expectations. In the midst of the 
ceremonies, two noblemen appeared before the 



74 King Richard III. rA.D.1461 

Voice of the people. They declare in favor of Edward, il 

multitude to make addresses to them. One of j 
them made a speech in respect to Henry, de- 
nouncing the crimes, and the acts of treachery 
and of oppression which his government had 
committed. He dilated long on the feebleness 
and incapacity of the king, and his total inabil- 
ity to exercise any control in the management 
of public affairs. After he had finished, he 
called out to the people in a loud voice to de- 
clare whether they would submit any longer to 
have such a man for king. 

The people answered ''Nay, ISTay, Nay," 
with loud and long acclamations. 

Then the other speaker made an address in 
favor of Edward. He explained at length the 
nature of his title to the crown, showing it to 
be altogether superior in point of right to that 
of Henry. He also spoke long and eloquently 
in praise of Edward's personal qualifications, 
describing his courage, his activity, and energy, 
and the various graces and accomplishments for 
which he was distinguished, in the most glow- 
ing terms. He ended by demanding of the peo- 
ple whether they would have Edward for king. 

The people answered " Yea, Yea, Yea ; 
King Edward forever! King Edward for- 
ever!" with acclamations as long and loud as 
before. 



Edward IY. 75 

Edward is formally enthroned. Various ceremonies. 

Of course there could be no legal validity in 
^uch proceedings as these, for, even if England 
had at that time been an elective monarchy, the 
acclamations of an accidental assembly drawn 
together to witness a review could on no ac- 
count have been deemed a valid vote. This 
ceremony was only meant as a very public an- 
nouncement of the intention of Edward imme- 
diately to assume the throne. 

The next day, accordingly, a grand council 
was held of all the great barons, and nobles, 
and officers of state. By this council a decree 
was passed that King Henry, by his late pro- 
ceedings, had forfeited the crown, and Edward 
was solemnly declared king in his stead. Im- 
mediately afterward, Edward rode at the head 
of a royal procession, which was arranged for 
the purpose, to Westminster, and there, in the 
presence of a vast assembly, he took his seat 
upon the throne. While there seated, he made 
a speech to the audience, in which he explained 
the nature of his hereditary rights, and declared 
his intention to maintain his rights thenceforth 
in the most determined manner. 

The king now proceeded to Westminster Ab- 
bey, where he performed the same ceremonies 
a second time. He was also publicly proclaimed 
king on the same day in various parts of London. 



76 King Eichard III. 

Edward marches to the northward. A battle. 

Edward was now full of ardor and enthusi- 
asm, and his first impulse was to set off, at the 
head of his army, toward the north, in pursuit 
of the queen and the old king. The king and 
queen had gone to York. The queen had not 
only the king under her care, but also her son, 
the little Prince of Wales, who was now about 
eight years old. This young prince was the 
heir to the crown on the Lancastrian side, and 
Edward was, of course, very desirous of getting 
him, as well as the king and queen, into his 
hands ; so he put himself at the head of his 
troops, and began to move forward as fast as he 
could go. The body of troops under his com- 
mand consisted of fifty thousand men. In the 
queen's army, which was encamped in the neigh- 
borhood of York, there were about sixty thou' 
sand. 

Both parties were extremely exasperated 
against each other, and were eager for the fight. 
Edward gave orders to his troops to grant no 
quarter, but, in the event of victory, to massa- 
cre without mercy every man that they could 
bring within their reach. The armies came to- 
gether at a place called Towton. The combat 
was begun in the midst of a snow-storm. The 
armies fought from nine o'clock in the morn- 
niug till three in the afternoon, and by that 



Edward IV. 77 

Edward enters York in triumph. He inters his father's body. 



time the queen's troops were every where driv- 
en from the field. Edward's men pursued them 
along the roads, slaughtering them without mer- 
cy as fast as they could overtake them, until at 
length nearly forty thousand men were left dead 
upon the ground. 

The queen fled toward the north, taking with 
her her husband and child. Edward entered 
York in triumph. At the gates he found the 
head of his father and that of his brother still 
remaining upon the poles where the queen had 
put them. He took them reverently down, and 
then put other heads in their places, which he 
cut off for the purpose from some of his prison- 
ers. He was in such a state of fury, that I sup- 
pose, if he could have caught the king and queen, 
he would have cut off their heads, and put them 
on the poles in the place of his father's and his 
brother's ; but he could not catch them. They 
fled to the north, toward the frontiers of Scot- 
land, and so escaped from his hands. 

Edward determined not to pursue the fugi- 
tives any farther at that time, as there were 
many important affairs to be attended to in 
London, and so he concluded to be satisfied at 
present with the victory which he had obtain- 
ed, and with the dispersion of his enemies, and 
to return to the capital. He first, however, 



78 King Eichard III. 

He returns to London. Grief of his mother. 

gathered together the remains of his father and 
brother, and caused them to be buried with sol- 
emn funeral ceremonies in one of his castles 
near York. This was, however, only a tempo- 
rary arrangement, for, as soon as his affairs were 
fully settled, the remains were disinterred, and 
conveyed, with great funeral pomp and parade, 
to their final resting-place in the southern part 
of the kingdom. 

As soon as Edward reached London, one of 
the first things that he did was to send for his 
two brothers, George and Eichard, who, as will 
be recollected, had been removed by their moth- 
er to Holland, and were now in Utrecht pursu- 
ing their education. These two hoys were all the 
brothers of Edward that remained now alive. 
They came back to London. Their widowed 
mother's heart was filled with a melancholy 
sort of joy in seeing her children once more to- 
gether, safe in their native land ; but her spirit, 
after reviving for a moment, sank again, over- 
whelmed with the bitter and irreparable loss 
which she had sustained in the death of her 
husband. His death was, of course, a fatal blow 
to all those ambitious plans and aspirations 
which she had cherished for herself. Though 
the mother of a king, she could now never be- 
come herself a queen ; and, disappointed and im- 



Edward IY. 79 



Situation of George and Eichard. Eichard's person. 

happy, she retired to one of the family castles 
in the neighborhood of London, and lived there 
comparatively alone and in great seclusion. 

The boys, on the other hand, were brought 
forward very conspicuously into public life. In 
the autumn of the same year in which Edward 
took possession of the crown, they were made 
royal dukes, with great parade and ceremony, 
and were endowed with immense estates to en- 
able them to support the dignity of their rank 
and position. George was made Duke of Clar- 
ence ; Eichard, Duke of Gloucester ; and from 
this time the two boys were almost always des- 
ignated by these names. 

Suitable persons, too, were appointed to take 
charge of the boys, for the purpose of conduct- 
ing their education, and also to manage their 
estates imtil they should become of age. 

There have been a great many disputes in re- 
spect to Eichard's appearance and character at 
this time. For a long period after his death, 
people generally believed that he was, from his 
very childhood, an ugly little monster, that no- 
body could look upon without fear; and, in 
fact, he was very repulsive in his personal ap- 
pearance when he grew up, but at this time of 
his life the historians and biographers who saw 
and knew him say that he was quite a pretty 



80 King Kichard III. 

Description of the armor worn in those days. 

boj, ttLOugh puny and weak. His face was 
handsome enougli, tliougli his form was frail, 
and not perfectly symmetrical. Those who had 
charge of him tried to strengthen his constitu- 
tion by training him to the martial exercises 
and usages which were practiced in those days, 
and especially by accustoming him to wear the 
ponderous armor which was then in use. 

This armor was made of iron or steel. It 
consisted of a great number of separate pieces, 
which, when they were all put on, incased al- 
most the whole body, so as to defend it against 
blows coming from any quarter. First, there 
was the helmet, or cap of steel, with large oval 
pieces coming down to protect the ears. Next 
came the gorget^ as it was called, which was a 
sort of collar to cover the neck. Then there 
were elbow pieces to guard the elbows, and 
shoulder-plates for the shoulders, and a breast- 
plate or buckler for the front, and greaves for 
the legs and thighs. These things were neces- 
sary in those days, or at least they were advan- 
tageous, for they afforded pretty effectual pro- 
tection against all the ordinary weapons which 
were then in use. But they made the warriors 
themselves so heavy and unwieldy as very 
greatly to interfere with the freedom of their 
movements when engaged in battle. There 



A.D.1461.] Edward IY. 81 

Necessity of being trained to use this armor. 

was, indeed, a certain advantage in this weight, 
as it made the shock with which the knight on 
horseback encountered his enemy in the charge 
so mnch the more heavy and overpowering; 
but if he were by any accident to lose his seat 
and fall to the ground, he was generally so en- 
cumbered by his armor that he could only par- 
tially raise himself therefrom. He was thus 
compelled to lie almost helpless until his ene- 
my came to kill him, or his squire or some 
other friend came to help him up.^' 

Of course, to be able to manage one's self at 
all in these habiliments of iron and steel, there 
was required not only native strength of con- 
stitution, but long and careful training, and it 
was a very important part of the education of 
young men of rank in Kichard's days to famil- 
iarize them with the use of this armor, and in- 
ure them to the weight of it. Suits of it were 
made for boys, the size and weight of each suit 
being fitted to the form and strength of the 
wearer. Many of these suits of boys' armor 
are still preserved in England. There are sev- 
eral specimens to be seen in the Tower of Lon- 
don. They are in the apartment called the 
Horse Armory, which is a vast hall with effi- 
gies of horses, and of men mounted upon them, 
* See engraving on page 148. 

F 



82 King Eichaed III. 

The armor costly. Substitutes for it. Exercises. 

all completely armed with the veritable suits 
of steel which the men and the horses that they ; 
represent actually wore when they were alive, j 
The horses are arranged along the sides of the ; 
room in regular order from the earliest ages i 
down to the time when steel armor of this kind i 
ceased to be worn. ■ i 

These suits of armor were very costly, and ; 
the boys for whom they were made were, of \ 
course, filled with feelings of exultation and ; 
pride when they put them on ; and, heavy and | 
uncomfortable as such clothing must have been, | 
they were willing to wear it, and to practice the : 
required exercises in it. When actually made \ 
of steel, the armor was very expensive, and such : 
could only be afforded for young princes and \ 
nobles of very high rank; for other young ' 
men, various substitutes were provided ; but all ] 
were trained, either in the use of actual armor, 
or of substitutes, to perform a great number 
and variety of exercises. They were taught, 
when they were old enough, to spring upon a 
horse with as much armor upon them and in 
their hands as possible ; to run races ; to see how 
long they could continue to strike heavy blows 
in quick succession with a battle-axe or club, 
as if they were beating an enemy lying upon 
the ground, and trying to break his armor to 



Edward IY. 85 

Feats to be performed. Account of the quintaine. 

pieces; to _ dance and throw summersets; to 
mount upon a horse behind another person bj 
leaping from the ground, and assisting them- 
selves only by one hand, and other similar 
things. One feat which they practiced was to 
climb up between two partition walls built pret- 
ty near together, by bracing their back against 
one wall, and working with their knees and 
hands against the other. Another feat was to 
climb up a ladder on the under side by means 
of the hands alone. 

Another famous exercise, or perhaps rather 
game, was performed with what was called the 
quintaine. The quintaine consisted of a stout 
post set in the ground, and rising about ten or 
twelve feet above the surface. Across the top 
was a strong bar, which turned on a pivot made 
in the top of the post, so that it would go round 
and round. To one end of this cross-bar there 
was fixed a square board for a target ; to the 
other end was hung a heavy club. The cross- 
bar was so poised upon the central pivot that 
it would move very easily. In playing the 
game, the competitors, mounted on horseback, 
were to ride, one after another, under the tar- 
get-end of the cross-bar, and hurl their spears 
at it with all their force. The blow from the 
spear would knock the target-end of the cross- 



86 King Kichaed III. 

other exercises and sports. Playing ball. 

bar away, and so bring ronnd the other end, 
with its heavy club, to strike a blow on the 
horseman's head if he did not get instantly out 
of the way. It was as if he were to strike one 
enemy in front in battle, while there was an- 
other enemy ready on the instant to strike him 
from behind. 

There is one of these ancient quintaines now 
standing on the green in the village of Off- 
ham, in Kent. 

Such exercises as these were, of course, only 
fitted for men, or at least for boys who had 
nearly attained to their full size and strength. 
There were other games and exercises intended 
for smaller boys. There are many rude pic- 
tures in ancient books illustrating these old 
games. In one they are playing ball ; in an- 
other they are playing shu.ttle-cock. The bat- 
tle-doors that they use are very rude. 




PLAYING BALL. 



These pictures show how ancient these com- 
mon games are. In another picture the boys 



EUWAED IV. 87 



Jumping through a hoop. The two brothers companions. 




BATTLE-DOOE AND SHUTTLE-COCK. 



are playing with a hoop. Two of them are 
holding the hoop np between them, and the 
third is preparing to jump through it, head 
foremost. His plan is to come down on the 
other side upon his hands, and so turn a sum- 
merset, and come up on his feet beyond. 

In these exercises and amusements, and, in- 
deed, in all his occupations, Kichard had his 
brother George, the Duke of Clarence, for his 
playmate and companion. George was not 
only older than Eichard, bu.t he was also much 
more healthy and athletic; and some persons 
have thought that Eichard injured himself, and 
perhaps, in some degree, increased the deformity 
which he seems to have suffered from in later 
years, or perhaps brought it on entirely, by 



88 King EiCHAKD III. [A.D.1461. 

Eichard's intellectual education. 

overloading himself, in his attempts to keep 
pace with his brother in these exercises, with 
burdens of armor, or by straining himself in 
athletic exertions which were beyond his pow- 
ers. 

The intellectual education of the boys was 
not entirely neglected. They learned to read 
and write, though they could not write much, 
or very well. Their names are still found, as 
they signed them to ancient documents, several 
of which remain to the present day. The fol- 
lowing is a fac-simile of Kichard's signature, 
copied exactly from one of those documents. 



4- 



C(V^^JL 



EIOHAED'S SIGNATURE. 




Eichard continued in this state of pupilage 
in some of the castles belonging to the family 
from the time that his brother began to reign 
until he was about fourteen years of age. Ed- 
ward, the king, was then twenty-four, and Clar- 
ence about seventeen. 



A.D.1461.] Warwick. 89 

Situation of Eichard under the reign of his brother. 



Chapter Y. 
Warwick, the King-Maker. 

EICHAED'S brother, Edward the Fonrth, 
began to reign when Eichard was about 
eight or nine years of age. His reign contin- 
ued — with a brief interruption, which will be 
hereafter explained — for twenty years ; so that, 
for a very important period of his life, after 
he arrived at some degree of maturity, name- 
ly, from the time that he was fourteen to the 
time that he was thirty, Eichard was one of his 
brother's subjects. He was a prince, it is true, 
and a prince of the very highest rank — the 
next person but one, in fact, in the line of suc- 
cession to the crown. His brother George, the 
Duke of Clarence, of course, being older than 
he, came before him ; but both the young men, 
though princes, were subjects. They were un- 
der their brother Edward's authority, and bound 
to serve and obey him as their rightful sover- 
eign ; next to him, however, they were the 
highest personages in the realm. George was, 
from this time, generally called Clarence, and 
Eichard, Gloucester. 



90 King Eichakd III. 

strange vicissitudes in the life of Margaret. 

The reader may perhaps feel some interest 
and curiosity in learning what became of Queen 
Margaret and old King Henry after they were 
driven out of the country toward the north, at 
the time of Edward's accession. Their pros- 
pects seemed, at the time, to be hopelessly ruin- 
ed, but their case was destined to furnish an- 
other very striking instance of the extraordi- 
nary reverses of fortune which marked the his- 
tory of nearly all the great families during the 
whole course of this York and Lancaster quar- 
rel. In about ten years from the 4:ime when 
Henry and Margaret were driven away, appar- 
ently into hopeless exile, they came back in tri- 
umph, and were restored to power, and Edward 
himself, in his turn, was ignominiously expelled 
from the kingdom. The narrative of the cir- 
cumstances through which these events were 
brought about forms quite a romantic story. 

In order, however, that this story may be 
more clearly understood, I will first enumerate 
the principal personages that take a part in it, 
and briefly remind the reader of the position 
which they respectively occupied, and the rela- 
tions which they sustained to each other. 

First, there is the family of King Henry, con- 
sisting of himself and his wife, Queen Margaret, 
and his little son Edward, who had received the 



Wakwick. 91 



•Representatives of the house of York. Margaret. 

title of Prince of Wales. This boy was about 
eigbt years old at the time his father and moth- 
er were driven away. We left them, in the last 
chapter, flying toward the frontiers of Scotland 
to save their lives, leaving to Edward and his 
troops the full possession of the kingdom. 

Henry and his little son, the Prince of Wales, 
of course represent the house of Lancaster in 
the dispute for the succession. 

The house of York was represented by Ed- 
ward, whose title, as king, was Edward the 
Fourth, and his two brothers, G-eorge and Eich- 
ard, or, as they were now generally called, Clar- 
ence and Gloucester. In case Edward should 
be married and have a son, his son would suc- 
ceed him, and George and Eichard would be ex- 
cluded ; if, however, he should die without is- 
sue, then G-eorge would become king ; and if 
Greorge should die without issue, and Eichard 
should survive him, then Eichard would suc- 
ceed. Thus, as matters now stood, Greorge and 
Eichard. were presumptive heirs to the crown, 
and it was natural that they should wish that 
their brother Edward should never be married. 

Besides these two brothers, who were the 
only ones of all his brothers that were now 
living, Edward had a sister named Margaret. 
•Margaret was four years younger than Edward 



92 King Eichard III. 

Value of a marriageable youug lady. Warwick. 

the king, and about six years older than Eich- 
ard. She was now about seventeen. A young 
lady of that age in the family of a king in 
those days was quite a treasure, as the king 
was enabled to promote his political schemes ! 
sometimes very effectually by bestowing her 
in marriage upon this great prince or that, as 
would best further the interests which he had 
in view in foreign courts. 

This young lady, Edward's sister, being of 
the same name — Margaret — with the queen of 
old King Henry, was distinguished from her by 
being called Margaret of York, as she belonged 
to the York family. The queen was generally 
known as Margaret of Anjou. Anjou was the 
place of her nativity. 

The next great personage to be named is the 
Earl of Warwick. He was the man, as you 
will doubtless recollect, who was in command 
of the sea between England and the Continent 
at the time when Lady Cecily wished to send 
her children, Greorge and Eichard, away after 
their father's death, and who assisted in arrang- 
ing their flight. He was a man of great power 
and influence, and of such an age and charac- 
ter that he exerted a vast ascendency over all 
within his influence. Without him, Edward 
never would have conquered the Lancaster 



Warwick. 93 



Warwick becomes Edward's prime minister. 



party, and lie knew very well that if Warwick, 
and all those whom Warwick would carry with 
him, were to desert him, he should not be able 
to retain his kingdom. Indeed, Warwick re 
ceived the surname of King-maker from the 
fact that, in repeated instances during this quar- 
rel, he put down one dynasty and raised up the 
other, just as he pleased. He belonged to a 
great and powerful family named Neville. As 
soon as Edward was established on his throne, 
Warwick, almost as a matter of course, became 
prime minister. One of his brothers was made 
chancellor, and a great number of other posts 
of distinction and honor were distributed among 
the members of the Neville family. Indeed, al- 
though Edward was nominally king, it might 
have been considered in some degree a question 
whether it was the house of York or the house 
of Neville that actually reigned in England. 

The Earl of Warwick had tvfo daughters. 
Their names were Isabella and Anne. These 
two young ladies the earl reckoned, as Ed- 
ward did his sister Margaret, among the most 
important of his political resources. By mar- 
rying them to persons of very high position, 
he could strengthen his alliances and increase 
his power. There was even a possibility, he 
thought, of marrying one of them to the King 



94 King Eichard III. [A.D.1461. 

The three great parties. The fortunes of Margaret of Anjou. 

of England, or to a prince wlio would become 
king. 

Thus we have for the three great parties to 
the transactions now to be described, first, the 
representatives of the house of Lancaster, the 
feeble Henry, the energetic and strong-minded 
Margaret of Anjou, and their little son, the 
Prince of Wales; secondly, the representatives 
of the house of York, King Edward the Fourth, 
the two young men his brothers, George, Duke 
of Clarence, and Eichard, Duke of Grioucester, 
and his sister Margaret ; and, thirdly, between 
these two parties, as it were, the Earl of War- 
wick and his two daughters, Isabella and Anne, 
standing at the head of a vast family influence^ 
which ramified to every part of the kingdom, 
and was powerful enough to give the ascend- 
ency to either side, in favor of which they might 
declare. 

We are now prepared to follow Queen Mar- 
garet in her flight toward the north with her 
husband and her son, at the time when Edward 
the Fourth overcame her armies and ascended 
the throne. . She pressed on as rapidly as pos- 
sible, taking the king and the little prince with 
her, and accompanied and assisted in her flight 
by a few attendants, till she had crossed the 
frontier and was safe in Scotland. The Scots 



A.D.1462.] Waewick. 95 

She escapes to France. A new txpcdition planned. 

espoused her cause,, and assisted her to raise 
fresh troops, with whicli she made one or two 
short incursions into England ; but she soon 
found that she could do nothing effectual in 
this way, and so, after wasting some time in 
fruitless attempts, she left Scotland with the 
king and the prince, and went to France. 

Here she entered into negotiations with the 
King of France, and with other princes and po- 
tentates on the Continent, with a view of rais- 
ing men and money for a new invasion of En- 
gland. At first these powers declined to assist 
her. They said that their treasuries were ex- 
hausted, and that they had no men. At last, 
however, Margaret promised to the King of 
France that if he would furnish her with a fleet 
and an army, by which she could recover the 
kingdom of her husband, she would cede to him 
the town of Calais, which, though situated on 
the coast of France, was at that time an English 
possession. This was a very tempting offer, 
for Calais was a fortress of the first class, and a 
military post either for England or France of a 
very important character. 

The king consented to this proposal. He 
equipped a fleet and raised an army, and Mar- 
garet set sail for England, taking the king and 
the prince with her. Her plan was to land in 



96 King Eichaed III. [A.P.1462. 

Margaret is defeated and compelled to fly. 

the nortlierii part of the island, near the fron- 
tiers of Scotland, where she expected to find the 
country more friendly to the Lancastrian line 
than the people were toward the south. As 
soon as she landed she was joined by many of | 
the people, and she succeeded in capturing some 
castles and small towns. But the Earl of War- 
wick, who was, as has been already said, the 
prime minister under Edward, immediately 
raised an army of twenty thousand men, and 
marched to the northward to meet her. Mar- 
garet's French army was wholly unprepared to 
encounter such a force as this, so they fled to 
their ships. All but about ^ye hundred of the 
men succeeded in reaching the ships. The five 
hundred were cut to pieces. Margaret herself 
was detained in making arrangements for the 
king and the prince. She concluded not to 
take them to sea again, but to send them secret- 
ly into Wales, while she herself went back to 
France to see if she could not procure re-en- 
forcements. She barely had time, at last, to 
reach the ships herself, so close at hand were 
her enemies. As soon as the queen had em- 
barked, the fleet set sail. The queen had saved 
nearly all the money and all the stores which 
she had brought with her from France, and she 
hoped still to preserve them for another at- 



Warwick. 



she encounters great dangers at sea. The king concealed. 

tempt. But the fleet had scarcely got off from 
the shore when a terrible storm arose, and the 
ships were all driven upon the rocks and dash- 
ed to pieces. The money and the stores were 
all lost; a large portion of the men were drown- 
ed; Margaret herself and the captain of the 
fleet saved themselves, and, as soon as the storm 
was over, they succeeded in making their escape 
back to Berwick in an old fishing-boat which 
they obtained on the shore. 

Soon aft^^r this, Margaret, with the captain of 
the fleet and a very small number of faithful 
followers who still adhered to her, sailed back 
again to France. 

The disturbances, however, which her land- 
ing had occasioned, did not cease immediately 
on her departure. The Lancastrian party all 
over England were excited and moved to ac- 
tion by the news of her coming, and for two 
years insurrections were continually taking 
place, and many battles were fought, and great 
numbers of people were killed. King Henry 
was all this time kept in close concealment, 
sometimes in "Wales, and sometimes among the 
lakes and mountains in Westmoreland. He 
was conveyed from place to place by his ad- 
herents in the most secret manner, the knowl- 
edge in respect to his situation being confined 
G 



98 King Kiciiard III. [A.D.1464. 

The king is made prisoner, and sent to the Tower. 

to the smallest possible number of persons. 
This continued for two or three years. At last, 
however, while the friends of the king were at- 
tempting secretly to convey him to a certain 
castle in Yorkshire, he was seen and recognized 
by one of his enemies. A plan was immediate- 
ly formed to make him prisoner. The plan 
succeeded. The king was surprised by an 
overwhelming force, which broke into the cas- 
tle and seized him while he sat at dinner. His 
captors, and those who were lying in wait to 
assist them, galloped off at once with their pris- 
oner to London. King Edward shut him up 
in the Tower, and he remained there, closely 
confined and stiongly guarded, for a long time. 
Thus King Henry's life was saved, but of 
those who espoused his cause, and made at- 
tempts to restore him, great numbers were 
seized and beheaded in the most cruel manner. 
It was Edward's policy to slay all the leaders. 
It was said that after a battle he would ride 
with a company of men over the ground, and 
kill every wounded or exhausted man of rank 
that still remained alive, though he would spare 
the common soldiers. Sometimes, when he got 
men that were specially obnoxious to him into 
his hands, he would put them to death in the 
most cruel and ignominious manner. One dis- 



Warwick. 99 



Brutal punishments. Great exasperation of the comhatants. 

tinguished kniglit, that had been taken prisoner 
by Warwick, was brought to King Edward, 
who, at that time, as it happened, was sick, and 
by Edward's orders was treated most brutally. 
He was first taken out into a public place, and 
his spurs were struck off from his feet by a 
cook. This was one of the greatest indignities 
that a knight could suffer. Then his coat of 
arms was torn off from him, and another coat, 
inside out, was put upon him. Then he was 
made to walk barefoot to the end of the town, 
and there was laid down upon his back on a 
sort of drag, and so drawn to the place of exe- 
cution, where his head was cut off on a block 
with a broad-axe. 

Such facts as these show what a state of ex- 
asperation the two great parties of York and 
Lancaster were in toward each other through- 
out the kingdom. It is necessary to under- 
stand this, in order fully to appreciate the im- 
port and consequences of the very extraordi- 
nary transaction which is now to be related. 

It seems there was a certain knight named 
Sir John Grray, a Lancastrian, who had been 
killed at one of the great battles which had 
been fought during the war. He had also been 
attainted, as it was called — that is, sentence had 
been pronounced against him on a charge of 



100 King Kiohaed III. 

Account of Elizabeth AVoodville. Edward' s first interview with her. 

high treason, by which his estates were forfeit- 
ed, and his wife and children, of course, re- 
duced to poverty. The name of his wife was 
Ehzabeth Woodville. She was the daughter 
of a noble knight named Sir Eichard Wood- 
ville. Her mother's name was Jacquetta. On 
the death and attainder of her husband, being 
reduced to great poverty and distress, she went 
home to the house of her father and mother, at 
a beautiful manor which they possessed at Graf- 
ton. She was quite young, and very beautiful. 
It happened that by some means or other 
Edward paid a visit one day to the Lady Jac- 
quetta, at her manor, as he was passing through 
the country. Whether this visit was accident- 
al, or whether it was contrived by Jacquetta, 
does not appear. However this may be, the 
beautiful widow came into the presence of the 
king, and, throwing herself at his feet, begged 
and implored him to revoke the attainder of 
her husband for the sake of her innocent and 
helpless children. The king was much moved 
by her beauty and by her distress. From pity- 
ing her he soon began to love her. And yet 
it seemed impossible that he should marry her. 
Her rank, in the first place, was far below his, 
and then, what was worse, she belonged to the 
Lancastrian party, the king's implacable ene- 



Warwick. 101 



The secret marriage. The marriage gradually revealed. 

mies. The king knew very well that all his 
own partisans would be made furious at the 
idea of such a match, and that, if they knew 
that it was in contemplation, they would resist 
it to the utmost of their power. For a time he 
did not know what he should do. At. length, 
however, his love for the beautiful widow, as 
might easily be foreseen, triumphed over all 
considerations of prudence, and he was secretly 
married to her. The marriage took place in 
the morning, in a very private manner, in the 
month of May, in 1464. 

The king kept the marriage secret nearly all 
summer. He thought it best to break the sub- 
ject to his lords and nobles gradually, as he 
had opportunity to communicate it to them 
one by one. In this way it at length became 
known, without producing, at any one time, any 
special sensation, and toward the fall prepara- 
tions Yv^ere made for openly acknowledging the 
union. 

Although the knowledge of the king's mar- 
riage produced no sudden outbreak of opposi- 
tion, it awakened a great deal of secret indig- 
nation and rage, and gave occasion to many 
suppressed mutterings and curses. Of course, 
every leading family of the realm, that had been 
on Edward's side in the civil, wars, which con- 



102 



King Eichard III. 



Ancient portrait of Edward IV. 




KING EDWARD IV. 



This engraving is a portrait of King Edward as he ap- 
peared at this time. It is copied from an ancient painting, 
and doubtless represents correctly the character and expres- 
sion of his countenance, and one form, at least, of dress which 
he was accustomed to wear. He was, at the time of his 
marriage, about twenty-two years of age. Elizabeth was 
ten years older. 



Warwick. 



103 



Portrait of Queen Elizabeth Woodville. 




QUEEN ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 



This engraving represents the queen. It is taken, like 
th3 other, from an ancient portrait, and no doubt corresponds 
closely to the original. 



tained a marriageable daiigliter, liad been form- 
ing hopes and laying plans to secure this mag- 
tiificent matcli for themselves. Those who had 



104 King Richard III. 

Indignatioa of the Earl of Warwick. George and Kichard. 

no marriageable daughters of their own join- 
ed their nearest relatives and friends in their 
schemes, or formed plans for some foreign alli- 
ance with a princess of France, or Burgundy, 
or Holland, whichever would best harmonize 
with the political schemes that they wished to 
promote. The Earl of Warwick seems to have 
belonged to the former class. He had two 
daughters, as has already been stated. It would 
very naturally be his desire that the king, if he 
were to take for his wife any English subject 
at all, should make choice of one of these. Of 
course, he was more than all the rest irritated 
and vexed at what the king had done. He 
communicated his feelings to Clarence, but con- 
cealed them from the king. Clarence was, of 
course, ready to sympathize with the earl. He 
was ready enough to take offense at any thing 
connected with the king's marriage on very 
slight groimds, for it was very much for his in- 
terest, as the next heir, that his brother should 
not be married at all. 

The earl and Clarence, however, thought it 
best for the time to suppress and conceal their 
opposition to the marriage ; so they joined very 
readily in the ceremonies connected with the 
public acknowledgment of the queen. A vast 
assemblage of nobles, prelates, and other grand 



A.D.1465.] Warwick. 107 

The queen is publicly acknowledged. 

dignitaries was convened, and Elizabeth was 
brouglit forward before tbem and formally pre- 
sented. The Earl of Warwick and Clarence ap- 
peared in the foremost rank among her friends 
on this occasion. They took her by the hand, 
and, leading her forward, presented her to the 
assembled multitude of lords and ladies, who 
welcomed her with long and loud acclamations. 

Soon after this a grand council was con- 
vened, and a handsome income was settled 
upon the queen, to enable her properly to main- 
tain the dignity of her station. 

Early in the next year preparations were 
made for a grand coronation of the queen. For- 
eign princes were invited to attend the cere- 
mony, and many came, accompanied by large 
bodies of knights and squires, to do honor to 
the occasion. The coronation took place in 
May. The queen was conveyed in procession 
through the streets of London on a sort of open 
palanquin, borne by horses most magnificently 
caparisoned. Yast crowds of people assem.bled 
along the streets to look at the procession as it 
passed. The next day the coronation itself 
took place in Westminster, and it was followed 
by games, feasts, tournaments, and public re- 
joicings of every kind, which lasted many 
days. 



108 Kino Kichakd III. [A.D.1465. 

Various difficulties and entanglements resulting from this marriage. 

Thus far every thing on the surface, at least, 
had gone well ; but it was not long after the 
coronation before the troubles which were to 
be expected from such a match began to devel- 
op themselves in great force. The new queen 
was ambitious, and she was naturally desirous 
of bringing her friends forward into places of 
influence and honor. The king was, of course, 
ready to listen to her recommendations; but 
then all her friends were Lancastrians. They 
were willing enough, it is true, to change their 
politics and to become Yorkists for the sake 
of the rewards and honors which they could 
obtain by the change, but the old friends of the 
king were greatly exasperated to find the im- 
portant posts, one after another, taken away 
from them, and given to their hated enemies. 

Then, besides the quarrel for the political of- 
fices, there were a great many of the cherish- 
ed matrimonial plans and schemes of the old 
families interfered with and broken up by the 
queen's family thus coming into power. It 
happened that the queen had five unmarried 
sisters. She began to form plans for securing 
for them men of the highest rank and position 
in the realm. This, of course, thwarted the 
plans and disappointed the hopes of all those 
families who had been scheming to gain these 



A.D.1465.] Warwick. 109 

Jealousy against the queen's family and relations?. 

husbands for their own daughters. To see five 
great heirs of dukes and barons thus withdrawn 
from the matrimonial market, and employed to 
increase the power and prestige of their ancient 
and implacable foes, filled the souls of the old 
Yorkist families with indignation. Parties were 
formed. The queen and her family and friends 
— the Woodvilles and Grays — with all their ad- 
herents, were on one side ; the ISTeville family, 
with the Earl of Warwick at their head, and 
most of tbe old Yorkist noblemeu, were on the 
other ; Clarence joined the Earl of Warwick ; 
Eichard, on the other hand, or Gloucester, as 
he was now called, adhered to the king. 

Things went on pretty much in this way for 
two years. There was no open quarrel, though 
there was a vast deal of secret animosity and 
bickering. The great world at court was di- 
vided into two sets, or cliques, that hated each 
other very cordially, though both, for the pres- 
ent, pretended to support King Edward as the 
rightful sovereign of the country. The strug- 
gle was for the honors and offices under him. 
The families who still adhered to the old Lan- 
castrian party, and to the rights of Henry and 
of the little Prince of Wales, withdrew, of course, 
altogether from the court, and, retiring to their 
castles, brooded moodily there over their fallen 



no King Eichaed III. [A.D.1467. 

Situation of Henry and his family. Margaret of York. 

fortunes, and waited in expectation of better 
times. Henry was imprisoned in the Tower; 
Margaret and the Prince of Wales were on the 
Continent. They and their friends were, of 
course, watching the progress of the quarrel be- 
tween the party of the Earl of Warwick and 
that of the king, hoping that it might at last 
lead to an open rupture, in which case the Lan- 
castrians might hope for Warwick's aid to bring 
them again into power. 

And now another circumstance occurred 
which widened this breach very much indeed. 
It arose from a difference of opinion between 
King Edward and the Earl of Warwick in re- 
spect to the marriage of the king's sister Mar- 
garet, known, as has already been said, as Mar- 
garet of York. There was upon the Continent 
a certain Count Charles, the son and heir of the 
Duke of Burgundy, who demanded her hand. 
The count's family had been enemies of the 
house of York, and had done every thing in 
their power to promote Queen Margaret's plans, 
so long as there was any hope for her ; but 
when they found that King Edward was firm- 
ly established on the throne, they came over to 
his side, and now the count demanded the hand 
of the Princess Margaret in marriage ; but the 
stern old Earl of Warwick did not like such 




WARWICK IN THE PRESENCE OF THE FEENCIl KING. 



Warwick. US 



Plans and manosuvres in respect to Margaret's marriage. 

friendship as this, so he recommended that the 
count should be refused, and that Margaret 
should have for her husband one of the princes 
of France. 

Now King Edward himself preferred Count 
Charles for the husband of Margaret, and this 
chiefly because the queen, his wife, preferred 
him on account of the old friendship which had 
subsisted between his family and the Lancas- 
trians. Besides this, howeyer, Flanders, the 
country over which the count was to reign on 
the death of his father, was at that time so sit- 
uated that an alliance with it would be of great- 
er advantage to Edward's political plans than 
an alliance with France. But, notwithstanding 
this, the earl was so earnest in urging his opin- 
ion, that finally Edward yielded, and the earl 
was dispatched to France to negotiate the mar- 
riage with the French prince. 

The earl set off on this embassy in great mag- 
nificence. He landed in Normandy with a vast 
train of attendants, and proceeded in almost 
royal state toward Paris. The King of France, 
to honor his coming and the occasion, came 
forth to meet him. The meeting took place at 
Eouen. The proposals were well received by 
the French king. The negotiations were con- 
tinued for eight or ten days, "and at last every 
H 



114 KiKG ElCHAKD III. 

Count Charles carries the day. Vexation of Warwick. 

thing was arranged. For the final closing of 
the contract, it was necessary that a messenger 
from the King of France should proceed to 
London. The king appointed an archbishop 
and some other dignitaries to perform the serv- 
ice. The earl then returned to England, and 
was soon followed by the French embassadors, 
expecting that every thing essential was set- 
tled, and that nothing but a few formalities re- 
mained. 

But, in the mean time, while all this had been 
going on in France, Count Charles had quietly 
sent an embassador to England to press his 
claim to the princess's hand. This messenger 
managed this business very skillfully, so as not 
to attract any public attention to what he was 
doing ; and besides, the earl being away, the 
queen, Elizabeth, could exert all her influence 
over her husband's mind unimpeded. Edward 
was finally persuaded to promise Margaret's 
hand to the count, and the contracts were made ; 
so that, when the earl and the French embassa- 
dors arrived, they found, to their astonishment 
and dismay, that a rival and enemy had stepped 
in during their absence and secured the prize. 

The Earl of Warwick was furious when he 
learned how he had been deceived. He had 
been insulted, he said, and disgraced. Edward 



A.D.1468.] Warwick. 115 

Progress of the quarrel. A temporary reconciliation. 

made no attempt to pacify liim ; indeed, any 
attempt tliat lie could have made would prob- 
ably bave been fruitless. The earl withdrew 
from the court, went off to one of his castles, 
and shut himself up there in great displeasure. 

The quarrel now began to assume a very se- 
rious air. Edward suspected that the earl was 
forming plots and conspiracies against him. 
He feared that he was secretly designing to 
take measures for restoring the Lancastrian line 
to the throne. He was alarmed for his personal 
safety. He expelled all Warwick's family and 
friends from the court, and, whenever he went 
out in public, he took care to be always attend- 
ed by a strong body-guard, as if he thought 
there was danger of an attempt upon his life. 

At length one of the earl's brothers, the 
youngest of the family, who was at that time 
Archbishop of York, interposed to effect a rec- 
onciliation. We have not space here to give a 
full account of the negotiations ; but the result 
was, a sort of temporary peace was made, by 
which the earl again returned to court, and was 
restored apparently to his former position. But 
there was no cordial good- will between him and 
the king. Edward dreaded the earl's power, 
and hated the stern severity of his character, 
while the earl, by the commanding influence 



116 King Eichakd TIL [A.D.1468. 

A new marriage scheme. Edward displeased. 

wliicli lie exerted in tlie realm, was continually 
thwarting both Edward and Elizabeth in their 
plans. 

Edward and Elizabeth had now been mar- 
ried some time, but they had no son, and, of ; 
course, no heir, for daughters in those days did 
not inherit the English crown. Of course, Clar- 
ence, Edward's second brother, was the next 
heir. This increased the jealousy which the 
two brothers felt toward each other, and tended 
yery much to drive Clarence away from Ed- 
ward, and to increase the intimacy between Clar- 
ence and Warwick. At length, in 1468, it was 
announced that a marriage was in contempla- 
tion between Clarence and Isabella, the Earl 
of Warwick's oldest daughter. Edward and 
Queen Elizabeth were very much displeased 
and very much alarmed when they heard of 
this plan. If carried into effect, it would bind 
Clarence and the Warwick influence together 
in indissoluble bonds, and make their power 
much more formidable than ever before. Ev- 
ery body would say when the marriage was 
concluded, 

" ISTow, in case Edward should die, which 
event may happen at any time, the earl's daugh- 
ter will be queen, and then the earl will have a 
greater influence than ever in the disposition 



Warwick. 117 



lie fails of preventing the marriage. The ceremony performed at Calais. 

of offices and honors. It behooves us, there- 
fore, to make friends with him in season, so as 
to secure his good- will in advance, before he 
comes into power." 

King Edward and his queen, seeing how much 
this match was likely at once to increase the 
earl's importance, did every thing in their pow- 
er to prevent it. But they could not succeed. 
The earl was determined that Clarence and his 
daughter should be married. The opposition 
was, however, so strong at court that the mar- 
riage could not be celebrated at London ; so 
the ceremony was performed at Calais, which 
city was at that time under the earl's special 
command. The king and queen remained at 
London, and made no attempt to conceal their 
vexation and chagrin. 



118 King Kichard III. 

Insurrections. The king goes to meet the rebels. 



Chapter YI. 
The Downfall of York. 

IT^DWARD'S apprehension and anxiety in 
--^ respect to the danger that Warwick might 
be concocting schemes to restore the Lancas- 
trian line to the throne were greatly increased 
by the sudden breaking out of insurrections in 
the northern part of the island, while Warwick 
and Clarence were absent in Calais, on the oc- 
casion of Clarence's marriage to Isabella. The 
insurgents did not demand the restoration of 
the Lancastrian line, but only the removal of 
the queen's family and relations from the coun- 
cil. The king raised an armed force, and march- 
ed to the northward to meet the rebels. But 
his army was disaffected, and he could do noth- 
ing. They fled before the advancing army of 
insurgents, and Edward went with them to Not- 
tingham Castle, where he shut himself up, and 
wrote urgently to Warwick and Clarence to 
come to his aid. 

Warwick made no haste to obey this com- 
mand. After some delay, however, he left Ca- 
lais in command of one of his lieutenants and 



A.D.1469.] Downfall of York. 119 

Rebellion suppressed. A gi-and reconciliation. 

repaired to IN'ottingliam, where he soon released 
the king from his dangerous situation. He 
quelled the rebellion too, but not until the in- 
surgents had seized the father and one of the 
brothers of the queen, and cut off their heads. 

In the mean time, the Lancastrians them- 
selves, thinking that this was a favorable time 
for them, began to put themselves in motion. 
Warwick was the only person who w^as capable 
of meeting them and putting them down. This 
he did, taking the king with him in his train, 
in a condition more like that of a prisoner than 
a sovereign. At length, however, the rebel- 
lions were suppressed, and all parties returned 
to London. 

There now took place what purported to be 
a grand reconciliation. Treaties were drawn 
up and signed between Warwick and Clarence 
on one side, and the king on the other, by which 
both parties bound themselves to forgive and 
forget all that had passed, and thenceforth to 
be good friends ; but, notwithstanding all the 
solemn signings and sealings with which these 
.covenants were secured, the actual condition of 
the parties in respect to each other remained 
entirely unchanged, and neither of the three 
felt a whit more confidence in the others after 
the execution of these treaties than before. 



120 King EicHARD III. 

The king frightened. The quarrel renewed. 

At last the secret distrust which they felt to- 
ward each other broke out openly. Warwick's 
brother, the Archbishop of York, made an en- 
tertainment at one of his manors for a party of 
guests, in which were included the king, the 
Duke of Clarence, and the Earl of Warwick. 
It was about three months after the treaties 
were signed that this entertainment was made, 
and the feast was intended to celebrate and ce- 
ment the good understanding which it was now 
agreed was henceforth to prevail. The king 
arrived at the manor, and, while he was in his 
room making his toilet for the supper, which 
was all ready to be served, an attendant came 
to him and whispered in his ear, 

" Your majesty is in danger. There is a band 
of armed men in ambush near the house." 

The king was greatly alarmed at hearing 
this. He immediately stole out of the house, 
mounted his horse, and, with two or three fol- 
lowers, rode away as fast as he could ride. He 
continued his journey all night, and in the 
morning arrived at Windsor Castle, 

Then followed new negotiations between 
Warwick and the king, with mutual reproach- 
es, criminations, and recriminations without 
number. Edward insisted that treachery was 
intended at the house to which he had been in^ 



A.D.1469.] Downfall of York. 121 

New reconciliations. New rebellions. 



vited, and that lie had barely escaped, by his 
sudden flight, from falling into the snare. But 
Warwick and his friends denied this entirely, 
and attributed the flight of the king to a whol- 
ly unreasonable alarm, caused by his jealous 
and suspicious temper. At last Edward suf- 
fered himself to be reassured, and then came 
new treaties and a new reconciliation. 

This peace was made in the fall of 1469, 
and in the spring of 1470 a new insurrection 
broke out. The king believed that Warwick 
himself, and Clarence, were really at the bottom 
of these disturbances, but still he was forced to 
send them with bodies of troops to subdue the 
rebels ; he, however, immediately raised a large 
army for himself, and proceeded to the seat of 
war. He reached the spot before Warwick and 
Clarence arrived there. He gave battle to the 
insurgents, and defeated them. He took a great 
many prisoners, and beheaded them. He found, 
or pretended to find, proof that Warwick and 
Clarence, instead of intending to fight the in- 
surgents, had made their arrangements for join- 
ing them on the following day, and that he 
had been just in time to defeat their treachery. 
Whether he really found evidence of these in- 
tentions on the part of Warwick and Clarence 
or not, or whether he was flushed by the ex- 



122 KlITG ElCHAED III. 

Warwick comes to open war with the king. 

citement of victory, and resolved to seize tlie 
occasion to cut loose at once and forever from 
the entanglement in wliicli lie liad been bonnd, 
is somewliat uncertain. At all events, lie now 
declared open war against Warwick and Clar- 
ence, and set off immediately on his march to 
meet them, at the head of a force much superi- 
or to theirs. 

Warwick and Clarence marched and coun- 
termarched, and made many manoeuvres to ec- 
cape a battle, and during all this time their 
strength was rapidly diminishing. As long as 
they were nominally on the king's side, how- 
ever really hostile to him, they had plenty of 
followers ; but, now that they were in open war 
against him, their forces began to melt away. 
In this emergency, Warwick suddenly changed 
all his plans. He disbanded his army, and then 
taking all his family with him, including Clar- 
ence and Isabella, and accompanied by an in- 
considerable number of faithful friends, he 
marched at the head of a small force which he 
retained as an escort to the sea-port of Dart- 
mouth, and then embarked for Calais. 

The vessels employed to transport the party 
formed quite a little fleet, so numerous were the 
servants and attendants that accompanied the 
fugitives. They embarked w^ithout delay on 



Downfall of Yokk. 123 

"Warwick and his party not allowed to land at Calais. 

reaching the coast, as tliej were in haste to 
make the passage and arrive at Calais, for Isa- 
bella, Clarence's wife, was about to become a 
mother, and at Calais they thought that they 
should all be, as it were, at home. 

It will be remembered that the Earl of War- 
wick was the governor of Calais, and that when 
he left it he had appointed a lieutenant to take 
command of it during his absence. Before his 
ship arrived off the port this lieutenant had re- 
ceived dispatches from Edward, which had been 
hurried to him by a special messenger, inform- 
ing him that Warwick was in rebellion against 
his sovereign, and forbidding the lieutenant to 
allow him or his party to enter the town. 

Accordingly, when Warwick's fleet arrived 
off the port, they found the guns of the batter- 
ies pointed at them, and sentinels on the piers 
warning them not to attempt to land. 

Warwick was thunderstruck. To be thus 
refused admission to his own fortress by his 
own lieutenant was something amazing, as well 
as outrageous. The earl was at first complete- 
ly bewildered ; but, on demanding an explana- 
tion, the lieutenant sent him word that the re- 
fusal to land was owing to the people of the 
town. They, he said, having learned that he 
and the king had come to open war, insisted 



124 King Eichaed III. 

The party iu great straits. They land at Harfleur. 

that the fortress should be reserved for their 
sovereign. Warwick then explained the situ- 
ation that his daughter was in ; but the lieuten- 
ant was firm. The determination of the peo- 
ple was so strong, he said, that he could not 
control it. Finally, the child was born on board 
the ship, as it lay at anchor off the port, and all 
the aid or comfort which the party could get 
from the shore consisted of two flagons of wine, 
which the lieutenant, with great hesitation and 
reKictance, allowed to be sent on board. The 
child was a son. His birth was an event of 
great importance, for he was, of course, as Clar- 
ence's son, a prince in the direct line of succes- 
sion to the English crown. 

At length, finding that he could not land at 
Calais, Warwick sailed away with his fleet along 
the coast of France till he reached the French 
port of Harfleur. Here his ships were admit- 
ted, and the whole party were allowed to land. 

Then followed various intrigues, manoeuvres, 
and arrangements, which we have not time here 
fully to unravel ; but the end of all was, that in 
a few weeks after the Earl of Warwick's land- 
ing in France, he repaired to a castle where 
Margaret of Anjou and her son, the Prince of 
Wales, were residing, and there, in the course 
of a short time, he made arrangements to es- 



A.D.1470.] Downfall of York. 125 

strange compact between Warwick and Queen Margaret. 

pouse her cause, and assist in restoring her hus- 
band to the Enghsh throne, on condition that 
her son, the Prince of Wales, should marry his 
second daughter Anne. It is said that Queen 
Margaret for a long time refused to consent to 
this arrangement. She was extremely unwill- 
ing that her son, the heir to the English crown, 
should take for a wife the daughter of the hated 
enemy to whom the downfall of her family, 
and all the terrible calamities which had be- 
fallen them, had been mainly owing. She was, 
however, at length induced to yield. Her am- 
bition gained the victory over her hate, and 
she consented to the alliance on a solemn oath 
being taken by "Warwick that thenceforth he 
would be on her side, and do all in his power to 
restore her family to the throne. 

This arrangement was accordingly carried 
into effect, and thus the earl had one of his 
daughters married to the next heir to the En- 
glish crown in the line of York, and the other 
to the next heir in the line of Lancaster. He 
had now only to choose to which dynasty he 
would secure the throne. Of course, the oath 
which he had taken, like other political oaths 
taken in those days, was only to be kept so long 
as he should deem it for his interest to keep it. 

He could not at once openly declare in favor 



126 King EiCHAED III. [A.D.1470. 

Attempt to entice Clarence away from Warwick. 

of King Henry, for fear of alienating Clarence 
from him. But Clarence was soon drawn away. 
King Edward, when he heard of the marriage 
of AYarwick's daughter with the Prince of 
Wales, immediately formed a plan for sending 
a messenger to negotiate with Clarence. He 
could not do this openly, for he knew very well 
that Warwick would not allow any avowed 
messenger from Edward to land ; so he sent a 
lady. The lady was a particular friend of Isa- 
bella, Clarence's wife. She traveled privately 
by the way of Calais. On the way she said 
nothing about the object of her journey, but 
gave out simply that she was going to join her 
mistress, the Princess Isabella. On her arrival 
she managed the affair with great discretion. 
She easily obtained private interviews with 
Clarence, and represented to him that Warwick, 
now that his daughter was married to the heir 
on the Lancastrian side, would undoubtedly lay 
all his plans forthwith for putting that family 
on the throne, and that thus Clarence would 
lose all. 

"And therefore," said she, "how much bet- 
ter it will be for you to leave him and return 
to your brother Edward, who is ready to for- 
give and forget all the past, and receive you 
again as his friend." 



Downfall of Yokk. 127 

Edward does not fear. The Duke of Burgundy. 

Clarence was convinced by these representa- 
tions, and soon afterward, watching his oppor- 
tunity, he made his way to England, and there 
espoused his brother's cause, and was received 
again into his service. 

In the mean time, tidings were continually 
coming to King Edward from his friends on 
the Continent, warning him of Warwick's plans, 
and bidding him to be upon his guard. But 
Edward had no fear. He said he wished that 
Warwick would come. 

" All I ask of my friends on the other side 
of the Channel," said he, " is that, when he does 
come, they will not let him get away again be- 
fore I catch him — as he did before." 

Edward's great friend across the Channel was 
his brother-in-law, the Duke of Burgundy, the 
same who, when Count Charles, had married 
the Princess Margaret of York, as related in a 
former chapter. The Duke of Burgundy pre- 
pared and equipped a fleet, and had it all in 
readiness to intercept the earl in case he should 
attempt to sail for England. 

In the mean time, Queen Margaret and the 
earl went on with their preparations. The 
King of France furnished them with men, arms, 
and money. When every thing was ready, the 
earl sent word to the north of England, to some 



128 King Eichard III. 



Queen Margaret crosses the Channel. 



of Lis friends and partisans tliere, to make a 
sort of false insurrection, in order to entice away 
Edward and liis army from the capital. This 
plan succeeded. Edward heard of the rising, 
and, collecting all the troops which were at hand, 
he marched to the northward to put it down. 
Just at this time a sudden storm arose and dis- 
persed the Duke of Burgundy's fleet. The earl 
then immediately put to sea, taking with him 
Margaret of Anjou and her son, the Prince of 
Wales, with his wife, the Earl of Warwick's 
daughter. The Prince of Wales was now about 
eighteen years old. The father. King Henry, 
Margaret's husband, was not joined with the 
party. He was all this time, as you will recol- 
lect, a prisoner in the Tower, where Warwick 
himself had shut him up when he deposed him 
in order to place Edward upon the throne. 

All Europe looked on with astonishment at 
these proceedings, and watched the result with 
intense interest. Here was a man who, having, 
by a desperate and bloody war, deposed a king, 
and shut him up in prison, and compelled his 
queen and the prince his son, the heir, to fly 
from the country to save their lives, had now 
sought the exiles in their banishment, had mar- 
ried his own daughter to the prince, and was 
setting forth on an expedition for the purpose 



Downfall of York. 129 

Landing of the expedition. Eeception of it. 

of liberating the father again, and restoring him 
to the throne. 

The earl's fleet crossed the Channel safely, 
and landed on the coast of Devonshire, in the 
southwestern part of the island. The landing 
of the expedition was the signal for great num- 
bers of the nobles and high families throughout 
the realm to prepare for changing sides ; for 
it was the fact, throughoat the whole course of 
these wars between the houses of York and 
Lancaster, that a large proportion of the nobil- 
ity and gentry, and great numbers of other ad- 
venturers, who lived in various ways on the 
public, stood always ready at once to change 
sides whenever there was a prospect that an- 
other side was coming into power. Then there 
were, in such a case as this, great numbers who 
were secretly in favor of the Lancaster line, but 
who were prevented from manifesting their 
preference while the house of York was in full 
possession of power. All these persons were 
aroused and excited by the landing of War- 
wick. King Edward found that his calls upon 
his friends to rally to his standard were not 
promptly obeyed. His friends were beginning 
to feel some doubt whether it would be best to 
continue his friends.- A certain preacher in 
Londou had' the courage to pray in public for 
I 



130 King Eichakd III. 

Edward's friends and followers forsake him. 

the "king in the Tower," and the manner in 
which this allusion was received by the popu- 
lace, and the excitement which it produced, 
showed how ready the city of London was to 
espouse Henry's cause. 

These, and other such indications, alarmed 
Edward very much. He turned to the south- 
ward again when he learned that Warwick had 
landed. Eichard, who had, during all this pe- 
riod, adhered faithfully to Edward's cause, was 
with him, in command of a division of the army. 
As Warwick himself was rapidly advancing to- 
ward the north at this time, the two armies soon 
began to approach each other. As the time of 
trial drew nigh, Edward found that his friends 
and supporters were rapidly abandoning him. 
At length, one day, while he was at dinner, a 
messenger came in and told him that one of 
the leading of&cers of the army, with the whole 
division under his command, were waving their 
caps and cheering for "King Harry." He saw 
at once that all was lost, and he immediately 
prepared to fly. 

He was not far from the eastern coast at this 
time, and there was a small vessel there under 
his orders, which had been employed in bring- 
ing provisions from the Thames to supply his 
ajmy. There were also two Butch vessels there. 



Downfall of Yoke. 131 

Edward flies from the country. Difficulties and dangers. 

The king took possession of these vessels, with 
Eichard, and the few other followers that went 
with him, and put at once to sea. Nobody 
knew where they were going. 

Very soon after they had put to sea they 
were attacked by pirates. They escaped only 
by running their vessel on shore on the coast 
of Finland. Here the king found himself in a 
state of almost absolute destitution, so that he 
had to pawn his clothing to satisfy the most 
urgent demands. At length, after meeting with 
various strange adventures, he found his way to 
the Hague, where he was, for the time, in com- 
parative safety. 

As soon as "Warwick ascertained that Ed- 
ward had fled, he turned toward London, with 
nothing now to impede his progress. He en- 
tered London in triumph. Clarence joined him, 
and entered London in his train ; for Clarence, 
though he had gone to England with the inten* 
tion of making common cause with his brother, 
had not been able yet to decide positively 
whether it would, on the whole, be for his in- 
terest to do so, and had, accordingly, kept him- 
self in some degree uncommitted, and now he 
turned at once again to Warwick's side. 

The queen — Elizabeth Woodville— with her 
mother Jacquetta, were residing at the Tower 



132 King Eichard III. 

His mother makes her escape to sanctuary. 

at this time, where they had King Henry in 
their keeping ; for the Tower was an extended 
group of buildings, in which palace and prison 
were combined in one. As soon as the queen 
learned that Edward was defeated, and that 
Warwick and Clarence were coming in triumph 
to London, she took her mother and three of 
her daughters — Elizabeth, Mary, and Cecily — 
who were with her at that time, and also a lady 
attendant, and hurried down the Tower stairs 
to a barge which was always in waiting there. 
She embarked on board the barge, and ordered 
the men to row her up to Westminster. 

Westminster is at the upper end of London, 
as the Tower is at the lower. On arriving at 
Westminster, the whole party fled for refuge to 
a sanctuary there. This sanctuary was a por- 
tion of the sacred precincts of a church, from 
which a refugee could not be taken, according 
to the ideas of those times, without committing 
the dreadful crime of sacrilege. A part of the 
building remained standing for three hundred 
years after this time, as represented in the oppo- 
site engraving. It was a gloomy old edifice, and 
it must have been a cheerless residence for prin- 
cesses and a queen. 

In this sanctuary, the queen, away from her 
husband, and deprived of almost every comfort, 



A.D.1470.] Downfall of York. 185 

Birth of Edward' s son and heir. 

gave birth to her first son. Some persons liv- 
ing near took compassion upon her forlorn and 
desolate condition, and rendered her such aid 
as was absolutely necessary, out of charity. 
The abbot of the monastery connected with the 
church sent in various conveniences, and a 
good woman named Mother Cobb, who lived 
near by, came in and acted as nurse for the 
mother and the child. 

The child was baptized in the sanctuary a 
few days after he was born. He was named 
Edward, after his father. Of course, the birth 
of this son of King Edward cut off Clarence 
and his son from the succession on the York 
side. This little Edward was now the heir, 
and, about thirteen years after this, as we shall 
see in the sequel, he became King of England. 

As soon as the Earl of Warwick reached 
London, he proceeded at once to the Tower to 
release old King Henry from his confinement. 
He found the poor king in a wretched plight. 
His apartment was gloomy and comfortless, his 
clothing was ragged, and his person squalid and 
dirty. The earl brought him forth from his 
prison, and, after causing his personal wants to 
be properly attended to, clothed him once more 
in royal robes, and conveyed him in state 
through London to the palace in Westminster, 



136 King Richaed III. [A.D.1470. 

King Henry is fully restored to tlie throne. 

and established hini there nommallj as King 
of England, though Warwick was to all intents 
and purposes the real king. A Parliament was 
called, and all necessary laws were passed to 
sanction and confirm the dynasty. Queen Mar- 
garet, who, however, had not yet arrived from 
the Continent, was restored to her former rank, 
and the young Prince of Wales, now about 
eighteen years old, was the object of universal 
interest throughout the kingdom, as now the 
unquestioned and only heir to the crown. 



A.D.1470.] Fall of Lancaster. 13T 

Position of Richard. The Duke of Burgundy. 



Chapter YII. 
The Downfall of Lancaster. 

IT was in the month of October, 1470, that 
old King Henry and his family were re- 
stored to the throne. Clarence, as we have 
seen, being allied to Warwick by being mar- 
ried to his daughter, was induced to go over 
with him to the Lancastrian side ; but Grlouces- 
ter — ^that is, Eichard — remained true to his own 
line, and followed the fortunes of his brother, 
in adverse as well as in prosperous times, with 
unchanging fidelity. He was now with Ed- 
ward in the dominions of the Duke of Burgun- 
dy, who, yoLi will recollect, married Margaret, 
Edward's sister, and who was now very natu- 
rally inclined to espouse Edward's cause. 

The Duke of Burgundy did not, however, 
dare to espouse Edward's cause too openly, for 
fear of the King of France, who took the side 
of Henry and Queen Margaret. He, however, 
did all in his power secretly to befriend him. 
Edward and Richard began immediately to 
form schemes for going back to England and 
recovering possession of the kingdom. The 



King Kichard III. 



His cunning. Secret communication with Clarence. 

Diike of Burgundy issued a public proclama- 
tion, in which it was forbidden that any of his 
subjects should join Edward, or that any expe- 
dition to promote his designs should be fitted 
out in any part of his dominions. This procla- 
mation was for the sake of the King of France. 
At the same time that he issued these orders 
publicly, he secretly sent Edward a large sum 
of money, furnished him with a fleet of fifteen 
or twenty ships, and assisted him in collecting 
a force of twelve hundred men. 

While he was making these arrangements 
and preparations on the Continent, Edward and 
his friends had also opened a secret communi- 
cation with Clarence in England. It v/ould, of 
course, very much weaken the cause of Edward 
and Richard to have Clarence against them; 
so Margaret, the wife of the Duke of Burgundy, 
interested herself in endeavoring to win him 
back again to their side. She had herself great 
influence over him, and she was assisted in her 
efforts by their mother, the Lady Cecily, who 
was still living in the neighborhood of London, 
and who was greatly grieved at Clarence's hav- 
ing turned against his brothers. The tie which 
bound Clarence to the Earl of Warwick was, 
of course, derived chiefly from his being mar- 
ried to Warwick's daughter. Warwick, how- 



Fall of Lancaster. 139 

Warwick's plans to secure Clarence. 

ever, did not trust wholly to this. As soon as 
he had restored Henry to the throne, he con- 
trived a cunning plan which he thought would 
tend to bind Clarence still more strongly to 
himself, and to alienate him completely from 
Edward. This plan was to induce the Parlia- 
ment to confiscate all Edward's estates and con- 
fer them upon Clarence. 

" Kow," said Warwick to himself, w^hen this 
measure had been accomplished, "Clarence will 
be sure to oppose Edward's return to England, 
for he knows very well that if he should return 
and be restored to the throne, he would, of 
course, take all these estates back again." 

But, while Edward was forming his plans on 
the Continent for a fresh invasion of England, 
Margaret sent messengers to Clarence, and their 
persuasions, united to those of his mother, in- 
duced Clarence to change his mind. He was 
governed by no principle whatever in what he 
did, but only looked to see what would most 
speedily and most fully gratify his ambition 
and increase his wealth. So, when they argued 
that it would be much better for him to be on 
the side of his brothers, and assist in restoring 
his own branch of the family to the throne, than 
to continue his unnatural connection with War- 
wick and the house of Lancaster, he allowed 



140 King Eichard III. 

Edward and Eichard sail for England. 

himself to be easily persuaded, and he prom- 
ised that though, for the present, he should re- 
main ostensibly a friend of Warwick, still, if 
Edward and Eichard would raise an expedition 
and come to England, he would forsake War- 
wick and the Lancasters, and join them. 

Accordingly, in the spring, when the fleet 
and the forces were ready, Edward and Eichard 
set sail from the Low Country to cross the Chan- 
nel. It w^as early in March. They intended 
to proceed to the north of England and land 
there. They had a very stormy passage, and 
in the end the fleet was dispersed, and Edward 
and Eichard with great difficulty succeeded in 
reaching the land. The two brothers were in 
different ships, and they landed in different 
places, a few miles apart from each other. 
Their situation was now extremely critical, for 
all England was in the power of Warwick and 
the Lancastrians, and Edward and Eichard were 
almost entirely without men. 

They, however, after a time, got together a 
small force, consisting chiefly of the troops who 
had come with them, and who had succeeded 
at last in making their way to the land. At 
the head of this force they advanced into the 
country toward the city of York. Edward gave 
out every where that he had not come with any 



A.D. 1471.] Fall of Lancaster. 141 

stratagems of vrar. deception of Edward at York. 

view of attempting to regain possession of the 
throne, but only to recover his own private and 
family estates, which had been unjustly confis- 
cated, he said, and conferred upon his brother. 
He acquiesced entirely, he said, in the restora- 
tion of Henry to the throne, and acknowledged 
him as king, and solemnly declared that he 
would not do any thing to disturb the peace of 
the country. 

All this was treacherous and false ; but Ed- 
ward and Richard thought that they were not 
yet strong enough to announce openly their 
real designs, and, in the mean time, the uttering 
of any false declarations which they might deem 
it good policy to make was to be considered as 
a stratagem justified by usage, as one of the le- 
gitimate resources of war. 

So they went on, nobody opposing them. 
They reached, at length, the city of York. 
Here Edward met the mayor and aldermen of 
the city, and renewed his declaration, which 
he confirmed by a solemn oath, that he never 
would lay any claim to the throne of England, 
or do any thing to disturb King Henry in his 
possession of it. He cried out, in a loud voice, 
in the hearing of the people, " Long live King 
Henry, and Prince Edward his son !" He wore 
an ostrich feather, too^ in his armor, which was 



142 King Eichard III. 

The roses. Public opinion. "Warwick. 

the badge of Prince Edward. The people of 
York were satisfied with, these protestations, 
and allowed him to proceed. 

His force was continually increasing as he 
advanced, and at length, on crossing the Eiver 
Trent, he came to a part of the country where 
almost the whole population had been on the 
side of York during all the previous wars. 
He began now to throw off his disguise, and to 
avow more openly that his object was again to 
obtain possession of the throne for the house of 
York. His troops now began to exhibit the 
white rose, which for many generations had 
been the badge of the house of York, as the 
red rose had been that of Lancaster.* In a 
word, the country was every where aroused and 
excited by the idea that another revolution was 
impending, and all those whose ruling principle 
it was to be always with the party that was up- 
permost -began to make preparations for com- 
ing over to Edward's side. 

In the mean time, however, Warwick, alarm- 
ed, had come from the northward to London to 
meet the invaders at the head of a strong force. 

* It was in consequence of this use of the roses, as the 
badges of the two parties respectively, that the civil wars 
between these two great families are often called in history 
the Wars of the Roses. 



Fall of Lancaster. 143 

Position of Clarence. His double dealing. 

Clarence was in command of one great division 
of this force, and Warwick himself of the other. 
The two bodies of troops marched at some lit- 
tle distance from each other. Edward shaped 
his course so as to approach that commanded 
bj Clarence. Warwick did all he could to pre- 
vent this, being, apparently, somewhat suspi- 
cious that Clarence was not fully to be relied on. 
But Edward succeeded, by dint of skillful ma- 
noeuvring, in accomplishing his object, and thus 
he and Clarence came into the neighborhood of 
each other. The respective encampments were 
only three miles apart. It seems, however, that 
there were still some closing negotiations to be 
made before Clarence was fally prepared to 
take the momentous step that was now before 
him. Kichard was the agent of these negotia- 
tions. He went back and forth between the 
two camps, conveying the proposals and coun- 
ter-proposals from one party to the other, and 
doing all in his power to remove obstacles from 
the way, and to bring his brothers to an agree- 
ment. At last every thing was arranged. Clar- 
ence ordered his men to display the white rose 
upon their armor, and then, with trumpets 
sounding and banners flying, he marched forth 
to meet Edward, and to submit himself to his 
command. 



144 King Kichard III. 

Clarence goes over to Edward's side. 

When the column which he led arrived near 
to Edward's camp, it halted, and Clarence him- 
self, with a small body of attendants, advanced 
to meet his brother ; Edward, at the same time, 
leaving his encampment, in company with Eich- 
ard and several noblemen, came forward too. 
Thus Edward and Clarence met, as the old chron- 
icle expresses it, " betwixt both hosts, where 
was right kind and loving language betwixt 
them two. And then, in like wise, spoke to- 
gether the two Dukes of Clarence and Glouces- 
ter, and afterward the other noblemen that were 
there with them; whereof all the people that 
were there that loved them were right glad and 
joyous, and thanked Grod highly for that joyous 
meeting, unity and concord, hoping that there- 
by should grow unto them prosperous fortune 
in all that they should after that have to do." 

Warwick was, of course, in a dreadful rage 
when he learned that Clarence had betrayed 
him and gone over to the enemy. He could 
do nothing, however, to repair the mischief, and 
he was altogether too weak to resist the two 
armies now combined against him ; so he drew 
back, leaving the way clear, and Edward, at the 
head now of an overwhelming force, and ac- 
companied by both his brothers, advanced di- 
rectly to London. 



Fall of Lancaster. 145 

Edward triumphant. Henry again sent to the Tower. 

He was received, at the capital with great 
favor. Whoever was uppermost for the time 
being was always received with favor in En- 
gland in those days, both in the capital and 
throughout the country at large. It was said, 
however, that the interest in Edward's fortunes, 
and in the succession of his branch of the fam- 
ily to the throne, was greatly increased at this 
time by the birth of his son, which had taken 
place in the sanctuary, as related in the last 
chapter, soon after Queen Elizabeth sought ref- 
uge there, at the time of Edward's expulsion 
from the kingdom. Of course, the first thing 
which Edward did after making his public en- 
try into London was to proceed to the sanctu- 
ary to rejoin his wife, and deliver her from her 
duress, and also to see his new-bom son. 

Queen Margaret was out of the kingdom at 
this time, being on a visit to the Continent. 
She had her son, the Prince of Wales, with her ; 
but Henry, the king, was in London. He, of 
course, fell into Edward's hands, and was im- 
mediately sent back a prisoner to the Tower. 

Edward remained only a day or two in Lon- 
don, and then set off again, at the head of all 
his troops, to meet Warwick. He brought out 
King Henry from the Tower, and took him 
with the army as a prisoner. 
K 



146 King Eichard III. 

Warwick refuses to yield. Preparations for a battle. 

Warwick had now strengthened himself so 
far that he was prepared for battle. The two 
armies approached each other not many miles 
from London. Before commencing hostilities, 
Clarence wished for an opportunity to attempt 
a reconciliation ; he, of course, felt a strong de- 
sire to make peace, if possible, for his situation, 
in case of battle, would be painful in the ex- 
treme — his brothers on one side, and his father- 
in-law on the other, and he himself compelled 
to fight against the cause which he had aban- 
doned and betrayed. So he sent a messenger 
to the earl, offering to act as mediator between 
him and his brother, in hopes of finding some 
mode of arranging the qu.arrel ; but the earl, 
instead of accepting the mediation, sent back 
only invectives and defiance. 

" G-o tell your master," he said to the messen- 
ger, " that Warwick is not the man to follow 
the example of faithlessness and treason which 
the false, perjured Clarence has set him. Un- 
like him, I stand true to my oath, and this quar- 
rel can only be settled by the sword." 

Of course, nothing now remained but to fight 
the battle, and a most desperate and bloody 
battle it was. It was fought upon a plain at a 
place called Barnet. It lasted from four in the 
morning till ten. 



Fall of Lancastee. 149 

Edward victorious. Warwick slain. 

Eichard came forward in tlie figlit in a very 
conspicuous and prominent manner. He was 
now about eigliteen years of age, and this was 
tlie first serious battle in which he had been ac- 
tually engaged. He evinced a great deal of 
heroism, and won great praise by the ardor in 
which he rushed into the thickest of the fight, 
and by the manner in which he conducted him- 
self there. The squires who attended him were 
both killed, but Eichard himself remained un- 
hurt. 

In the end, Edward was victorious. The 
quarrel was thus decided by the sword, as War- 
wick had said, and decided, so far as the earl 
was concerned, terribly and irrevocably, for he 
himself was unhorsed upon the field, and slain. 
Many thousands of soldiers fell on each side, 
and great numbers o.f the leading nobles. The 
bodies were buried in one common trench, 
which was dug for the purpose on the plain, 
and a chapel was afterward erected over them, 
to mark and consecrate the spot. 

It is said in respect to King Henry, who had 
been taken from the Tower and made to ac- 
company the army to the field, that Edward 
placed him in the midst of the fight at Barnet, 
in the hope that he might in this way be slain, 
either by accident or design. This plan, how- 



150 KinO Eiciiahd III. [A.D.1471. 

King Henry. Margaret and the Prince of Wales. 

ever, if it were formed, did not succeed, for 
Henry escaped unharmed, and, after the battle, 
was taken back to London, and again conveyed 
through the gloomy streets of the lower city to 
his solitary prison in the Tower. The streets 
were filled, after he had passed, with groups of 
men of all ranks and stations, discussing the 
strange and mournful vicissitudes in the life of 
this hapless monarch, now for the second time 
cut off from all his friends, and immured hope- 
lessly in a dismal dungeon. 

On the very day of the battle of Barnet, 
Queen Margaret, who had hastened her return 
to England on hearing of Edward's invasion, 
landed at Plymouth, in the southwestern part 
of England. The young Prince of Wales, her 
son, was with her. When she heard the terri- 
ble tidings of the loss of the battle of Barnet 
and the death of Warwick, she was struck with 
consternation, and immediately fled to an ab- 
bey in the neighborhood of the place where 
she had landed, and took sanctuary there. She 
soon, however, recovered from this panic, and 
came forth again. She put herself, with her 
son, at the head of the French troops which she 
had brought with her, and collected also as 
many more as she could induce to join her, and 
then, marching slowly toward the northward, 




STRKET LE.4DINQ TO TUE TOWER. 



Fall of Lancaster. 153 

Meeting of the armies. Two boys to command- 

finally took a strong position on the Eiver Sev- 
ern, near the town of Tewkesbury. Tewkes- 
bury is in the western part of England, near 
the frontiers of Wales. 

Edward, having received intelligence of her 
movements, collected his forces also, and, ac- 
companied by Clarence and Gloucester, went 
forth to meet her. The two armies met about 
three weeks after the battle of Barnet, in which 
Warwick was killed. All the flower of the 
English nobility were there, on one side or on 
the other. 

Queen Margaret's son, the Prince of Wales, 
was now about eighteen years of age, and his 
mother placed him in command — nominally at 
the head of the army. Edward, on his side, as- 
signed the same position to Eichard, who was 
almost precisely of the same age with the Prince 
of Wales. Thus the great and terrible battle 
which ensued was fought, as it were, by two 
boys, cousins to each other, and neither of 
them out of their teens. 

The operations were, however, really direct- 
ed by older and more experienced men. The 
chief counselor on Margaret's side was the 
Duke of Somerset. Edward's army attempted, 
by means of certain evolutions, to entice the 
queen's army out of their camp. Somerset 



154 King Eichard III. 



The killing of Lord Wealock. End of the battle. 

wished to go, and he commanded the men to 
follow. Some followed, but others remained 
behind. Among those that remained behind 
was a body of men under the command of a 
certain Lord Wenlock. Somerset was angry 
because they did not follow him, and he sus- 
pected, moreover, that Lord Wenlock was in- 
tending to betray the queen and go over to the 
other side ; so he turned back in a rage, and, 
coming up to Lord Wenlock, struck him a 
dreadful blow upon his helmet with his battle- 
axe, and killed him on the spot. 

Li the midst of the confusion which this af- 
fair produced, Richard, at the head of his broth- 
er's troops, came forcing his way into the in- 
trenchments, bearing down all before him. 
The queen's army was thrown into confusion, 
and put to flight. Thousands upon thousands 
were killed. As many as could save them- 
selves from being slaughtered upon the spot 
fled into the country toward the north, pursued 
by detached parties of their enemies. 

The young Prince of Wales was taken pris- 
oner. The queen fled, and for a time it was 
not known what had become of her. She fled 
to the church in Tewkesbury, and took refuge 
there. 

As for the Prince of Wales, the account of 




I I I' I " 



Fall of Lancaster. 157 

Murder of the Prince of Wales. 

his fate which was given at the time, and has 
generally been believed since, is this : As soon 
as the battle was over, he was brought, disarm- 
ed and helpless, into King Edward's tent, and 
there Edward, Clarence, Gloucester, and oth- 
ers gathered around to triumph over him, and 
taunt him with his downfall. Edward came up 
to him, and, after gazing upon him a moment 
in a fierce and defiant manner, demanded of 
him, in a furious tone, '' What brought him to 
England?" 

"My father's crown and my own inherit- 
ance," replied the prince. 

Edward uttered some exclamation of anger, 
and then struck the prince upon the mouth 
with his gauntlet.* 

At this signal, Gloucester, and the others 
who were standing by, fell upon the poor help- 
less boy, and killed hhn on the spot. The 
prince cried to Clarence, who was his brother- 
in-law, to save him, but in vain ; Clarence did 
not interfere. 

Some of the modern defenders of Richard's 
character attempt to show that there is no suf- 
ficient evidence that this story is true, and they 

* Ite gauntlet was a sort of iron glove, the fingers of 
which Avere made flexible by joints formed with scales slid- 
ing over each other. 



158 King Eichard III. 

The queen's refuga. Edward in the church. 

maintain that the prince was slain upon tlie 
field, after the battle, and that Eichard was in- 
nocent of his death. The evidence, however, 
seems strongly against this last supposition. 

Soon after the battle, it was found that the 
queen, with her attendants, as has already been 
stated, had taken refuge in a church at Tewkes- 
bury, and in other sacred structures near. 

Edward proceeded directly to the church, 
with the intention of hunting ou.t his enemies 
wherever he could find them. He broke into 
the sacred precincts, sword in hand, attended 
by a number of reckless and desperate follow- 
ers, and would have slain those that had taken 
refuge there, on the spot, had not the abbot 
himself come forward and interposed to protect 
them. He came dressed in his sacerdotal robes, 
and bearing the sacred emblems in his hands. 
These emblems he held up before the infuriated 
Edward as a token of the sanctity of the place. 
By these means the king's hand was stayed, 
and, before allowing him to go away, the abbot 
exacted from him a promise that he would mo- 
lest the refugees no more. 

This promise was, however, not made to be 
kept. Two days afterward Edward appointed 
a court-martial, and sent Eichard, with an armed 
force, to the church, to take all the men that 



Fall of Laistcastek. 161 

Blargaret taken. Conducted a prisoner to London. 

had sought refuge tllere, and bring them out for 
trial. The trial was conducted with very little 
ceremony, and the men were all beheaded on 
the green, in Tewkesbury, that very day. 

Queen Margaret and the ladies who attend- 
ed her were not with them. They had sought 
refuge in another place. They were, however, 
found after a few days, and were all brought 
prisoners to Edward's camp at Coventry; for, 
after the battle, Edward had begun to move on 
with his army across the country. 

The king's first idea was to send Margaret 
immediately to London and put her in the Tow- 
er ; but, before he did this, a change in his plans 
took place, which led him to decide to go to 
London himself. So he took Queen Margaret 
with him, a captive in his train. On the arri- 
val of the party in London, the queen was con- 
veyed at once to the Tower. 

Here she remained a close prisoner for five 
long and weary years, and was then ransomed 
by the King of France and taken to the Con- 
tinent. She lived after this in comparative ob- 
scurity for about ten years, and then died. 

As for her husband, his earthly troubles were 

brought to an end much sooner. The cause of 

the change of plan above referred to, which led 

Edward to go directly to London soon after 

L 



162 King Kicharjd III. [A.D.1471. 

Henry is put to death in the Tower. 

tlie battle of Tewkesbury, was the news that a 
relative of Warwick, whom that nobleman, dur- 
ing his life-time, had put in command in the 
southeastern part of England, had raised an in- 
surrection there, with a view of marching to 
London, rescuing Henry from the Tower, and 
putting him upon the throne. This movement 
was soon put down, and Edward returned from 
the expedition triumphant to London. He and 
his brothers spent the night after their arrival 
in the Tower. The next morning King Henry 
was found dead in his bed. 

The universal belief was then, and has been 
since, that he was put to death by Edward's or- 
ders, and it has been the general opinion that 
Eichard was the murderer. 

The body of the king was put upon a bier 
that same day, and conveyed to St. Paul's 
Church in London, and there exhibited to the 
public for a long time, with guards and torch- 
bearers surrounding it. An immense concourse 
of people came to view his remains. The ob- 
ject of this exposition of the body of the king 
was to make sure the fact of his death in the 
public mind, and prevent the possibility of the 
circulation of rumors, subsequently, by the par^ 
tisans of his house, that he was still alive ; for 
suoh rumors would greatly have iucreaaed the 



A.D.U71.] Fall of Lancastee. 163 

Burial of Ueury VI. 

danger of any insurrectionary plans wMch. 
might be formed against Edward's authority. 

In due time the body was interred at Wind- 
sor, and a sculptured monument, adorned with 
various arms and emblems, was erected over 
the tomb. 




TOMB OF HENRY VI. 



164 King Eichard III. [A.D.1471. 

The Lancastrian party completely subdued. 

The remaining leaders on tlie Lancaster side 
were disposed of in a very effectual manner, to 
prevent the possibility of their again acquiring 
power. Some were banished. Others were 
shut up in various castles as hopeless prisoners. 
The country was thus wholly subdued, and Ed- 
ward was once more established firmly on his 
throne. 



Richakd's Makkiage. 165 



Characters of Clarence and Richard. 



Chapter YIII. 
Richard's Marriage. 

WHEN the a£fairs of the kingdom were 
settled, after the return of King Edward 
to the throne, Richard, Duke of Grioucester, the 
subject of the present volume, was found occu- 
pying a very exalted and brilliant position. It 
is true, he was yet very young, being only about 
nineteen years of age, and by birth he was sec- 
ond to Clarence, Clarence being his older broth- 
er. But Clarence had been so wavering and 
vacillating, having changed sides so often in 
the great quarrels, that no confidence was 
placed in him now on either side. Richard, 
on the other hand, had steadily adhered to his 
brother Edward's cause. He had shared all 
his brother's reverses, and he had rendered him 
most valuable and efficient aid in all the battles 
which he had fought, and had contributed es- 
sentially to his success in all the victories which 
he had gained. Of course, now, Edward and' 
his friends had great confidence in Richard, 
while Clarence was looked upon with suspicion 
and distrust. 



166 King Kichard III. [A.D.1471. 

Embarrassing situation in Avhich Clarence was placed. 

Clarence, it is true, liad one excuse for his 
instability, wMcli Eiciiard had not ; for Clar- 
ence, having married the Earl of "Warwick's 
daughter, was, of course, brought into very 
close connection with the earl, and was subject- 
ed greatly to his influence. Accordingly, what- 
ever course Warwick decided to take, it was 
extremely difficult for Clarence to avoid join- 
ing him in it ; and when at length Warwick 
arranged the marriage of his daughter Anne 
with the Prince of Wales, King Henry's son, 
and so joined himself to the Lancaster party, 
Clarence was placed between two strong and 
contrary attractions — his attachment to his 
brother, and his natural interest in the advance- 
ment of his own family being on one side, and 
his love for his wife, and the great influence 
and ascendency exerted over his mind by his 
father-in-law being on the other. 

Bichard was in no such strait There was 
nothing to entice him away from his fidelity to 
his brother, so he remained true. 

He had been so brave and efficient, too, in 
the military operations connected with Edward's 
recovery of the throne, that he had acquired 
great renown as a soldier throughout the king- 
dom. The fame of his exploits was the nibre 
brilliant on account of his youth. It was con- 



i 



A.D.1471.] Richard's Marriage. 167 

Kichard made Lord High Admiral of England. 

sidered remarkable that a young man not yet 
out of his teens should show so much skill, 
and act with so much resolution and energy in 
times so trying, and the country resounded 
with his praises. 

As soon as Edward was established on the 
throne, he raised Richard to what was in those 
days, perhaps, the highest office under the 
crown, that of Lord High Admiral of England. 
This was the office which the Earl of Warwick 
had held, and to which a great portion of the 
power and influence which he exercised was 
owing. The Lord High Admiral had command 
of the navy, and of the principal ports on both 
sides of the English Channel, so long as any 
ports on the French side remained in English 
hands. The reader will recollect, perhaps, that 
while Richard was quite a small boy, his moth- 
er was compelled to fly with him and his little 
brother George to France, to escape from the 
enemies of the family, at the time of his father's 
death, and that it was through the Earl of War- 
wick's co-operation that she was enabled to ac- 
complish this flight. Now it was in conse- 
quence of Warwick's being at that time Loi'd 
High Admiral of England, and his having com- 
mand of Calais, and the waters between Calais 
and England, that he could make arrangements 



168 King Eichaed III. 

His real character. Requisites of a good soldier. 

to assist Lady Cecily so effectually on that oc- 
casion. 

Still, Eicliard, though universally applauded 
for his military courage and energy, was known 
to all who had opportunities of becoming per- 
sonally acquainted with him to be a bad man. 
He was unprincipled, hard-hearted, and reck- 
less. This, however, did not detract from his 
military fame. Indeed, depravity of private 
character seldom diminishes much the applause 
which a nation bestows upon those who acquire 
military renown in their service. It is not to 
be expected that it should. Military exploits 
have been, in fact, generally, in the history of 
the world, gigantic crimes, committed by reck- 
less and remorseless men for the benefit of oth- 
ers, who, though they would be deterred by 
their scruples of conscience or their moral sen- 
sibilities from perpetrating such deeds them- 
selves, are ready to repay, with the most ex- 
travagant honors and rewards, those who are 
ferocious and unscrupulous enough to perpe- 
trate them in their stead. Were it not for some 
very few and rare exceptions to the general 
rule, which have from time to time appeared, 
the history of mankind would show that, to be 
a good soldier^ it is almost absolutely essential to 
be a had raan. 



Kichard's Marriage. 169 

Young Edward formallj' acknowledged heir to the crown. 

The child, Prince Edward, the son of Edward 
the Fourth, who was born, as is related in a 
preceding chapter, in the sanctuary at West- 
minster, whither his mother had fled at the time 
when Edw:ard was expelled from the kingdom, 
was, of course, King Edward's heir. He was 
now less than a year old, and, in order to place 
his title to the crown beyond dispute, a solemn 
oath was required from all the leading nobles 
and officers of Edward's government, that in 
case he survived his father they would acknowl- 
edge him as king. The following is the form 
of the oath which was taken : 

K acfenotoleUfle, tafee, an^ repute gou, Hlitoartr, 33tfiice 
of 5!l?^ales, Bufee of €:ornfcDa2ll, nrCU 35rl of Cltfjestre, 
futstte ftefloten son of ourc sobereijjne lortJ, as to tfje co* 
tones anX> teames of Bnfllanti antr of ifrance, untj lortJ* 
sfjip of KrelanTi ; anti promette anT)( stoere t^at in case 
hereafter ft !)appen gou fts ©fotitJis trisposition tjo out* 
Ube our sobereiflne lortr, E s^all ti)en tafee anXr accept 50U 
for true, beraj antr riflt)teous Bins of lEnsIantJ, anlr of 
J^rance, anlr of JJrelantt ; anTr feftfj anti trout!) to gou 
sljall tiere, anti gn all ttjgnfls truelj antr feitSfullg ftc:* 
f)abe me tofeoartres sou anti ^ouxz fjegres, as a true anti 
feftljful suftfect otoetf) to i)el)abe fjim to tjfs soberefune lortJ 
anti rfsj^tifjs l&ing of lEnjjlanti, if ranee, anti firelanti ; 
so |)elp me ®fotr, anti J^olitiome, anti t|)is Jjolj Hbanfle* 
list. 

Eichard took this oath with the rest. How 
he kept it will hereafter appear. 



170 King Eichakd III. 

Forlorn condition of Lady Anne. 

The Lady Anne, the second daughter of the 
Earl of Warwick, who had been betrothed to 
the Prince of Wales, King Henry's son, was 
left, by the fall of the house of Lancaster and 
the re-establishment of King Edward the Fourth 
upon the throne, in a most forlorn and pitiable 
condition. Her father, the earl, was dead, hav- 
ing been killed in battle. Her betrothed hus- 
band, too, the Prince of Wales, with whom she 
had fondly hoped one day to sit on the throne 
of England, had been cruelly assassinated. 
Queen Margaret, the mother of the prince, who 
might have been expected to take an interest 
in her fate, was a helpless prisoner in the Tow- 
er. And if the fallen queen had been at liber- 
ty, it is very probable that all her interest in 
Anne would prove to have been extinguished 
by the death of her son ; for Queen Margaret 
had never felt any personal preference for Anne, 
and had only consented to the marriage very 
reluctantly, and from political considerations 
alone. The friends and connections of her fa- 
ther's family, a short time since so exalted in 
station and so powerful, were now scattered 
and destroyed. Some had been killed in bat- 
tle, others beheaded by executioners, others 
banished from the realm. The rest were roam- 
ing about England in terror and distress, house- 



A.D.14:71.] Richard's Marriage. 171 

Her sister Isabella. Clarence's views in respect to the property. 

less, homeless, friendless, and only intent to find 
some hiding-place where they might screen 
themselves from Edward's power and venge- 
ance. 

There was one exception, indeed, the Lady 
Isabella, Clarence's wife, who, as the reader will 
recollect, was Warwick's oldest daughter, and, 
of course, the sister of Lady Anne. She and 
Clarence, her husband, it might be supposed, 
would take an interest in Lady Anne's fate. 
Indeed, Clarence did take an interest in it, but, 
unfortunately, the interest was of the wrong 
kind. 

The Earl of Warwick had been immensely 
wealthy. Besides the ancient stronghold of the 
family, Warwick Castle, one of the most re- 
nowned old feudal fortresses in England, he 
owned many other castles, and many large es- 
tates, and rights of property of various kinds 
all over the kingdom. Now Clarence, after 
Warwick's death, had taken most of this prop- 
erty into his own hands as the husband of the 
earl's oldest daughter, and he wished to keep 
it. This he could easily do while Anne re- 
mained in her present friendless and helpless 
condition. But he knew very well that if she 
were to be married to any person of rank and 
influence on the York side, her husband would 



172 King Kichard III. 



Kicliard'd plan. His early acquaintance with Anne. 

insist on a division of the property. 'Now he 
suspected that his brother Eichard had con- 
ceived the design of marrying her. He accord- 
ingly set himself at work earnestly to thwart 
this design. 

It was true that Eichard had conceived the 
idea of making Anne his wife, from the mo- 
tive, however, solely, as it would seem, to ob- 
tain her share of her father's property. 

Eichard had been acquainted with Anne from 
her childhood. Indeed, he was related to the 
family of the Earl of Warwick on his mother's 
side. His mother, Lady Cecily JSTeville, belong- 
ed to the same great family of Neville from 
which the Warwicks sprung. Warwick had 
been a great friend of Lady Cecily in former 
years, and it is even supposed that when Eich- 
ard and his brother George were brought back 
from the Continent, at the time when Edward 
first obtained possession of the kingdom, they 
lived for a time in Warwick's family at Mid- 
dleham Castle.* This is not quite certainly 
known, but it is at any rate known that Eich- 
ard and Anne knew each other well when they 
were children, and were often together. 

There is an account of a grand entertainment 

* For a view of this castle, and the grounds pertaining to 
it, see page 180. 



Eichard's Marriage. 173 

The banquet at the archbishop's. 

wliicli was given by the Warwick family at 
York, some years before, on the occasion of 
the enthroning of the earl's brother George as 
Archbishop of York, at which Ei chard was 
present. Eichard, being a prince of the blood 
royal, was, of course, a very highly honored 
guest, notwithstanding that he was but a child. 
So they prepared for him and some few oth- 
er great personages a raised platform, called a 
dais, at one end of the banquet-hall, with a roy- 
al canopy over it. The table for the distin- 
guished personages was upon this dais, while 
those for the other guests extended up and 
down the hall below. Eichard was seated at 
the centre of the table of honor, with a countess 
on one side of him and a duchess on the other. 
Opposite to him, at the same table, were seated 
Isabella and Anne. Anne was at this time 
about twelve years old. 

Now it is supposed that Isabella and Anne 
were placed at this table to please Eichard, for 
their mother, who was, of course, entitled to 
take precedence of them, had her seat at one of 
the large tables below. 

From this and some other similar indica- 
tions, it is supposed that Eichard took a flxncy 
to Anne while they were quite young, as Clar- 
ence did to Isabella. Indeed, one of the ancient 



174 King Eichaed III. 

Clarence conceals Lady Anne. 

writers says that Kicliard wished, at this early 
period, to choose her for his wife, but that she 
did not like him. 

At any rate, now, after the re-establishment 
of his brother "upon the throne, and his own ex- 
altation to such high ofS.ce nnder him, he de- 
termined that he would marry Anne. Clar- 
ence, on the other hand, determined that he 
should not marry her. So Clarence, with the 
pretense of taking her under his protection, 
seized her, and carried her away to a place of 
concealment, where he kept her closely shut 
up. Anne consented to this, for she wished to 
keep out of Kichard's way. Kichard's person 
was disagreeable to her, and his character was 
hateful. She seems to have considered him, as 
he is generally represented by the writers of 
those times, as a rude, hard-hearted, and un- 
scrupulous man; and she had also a special rea- 
son for shrinking from him with horror, as the 
mortal enemy of her father, and the reputed 
murderer of the husband to whom she had been 
betrothed. 

Clarence kept her for some time in obscure 
places of concealment, changing the place from 
time to time to elude the vigilance of Kichard, 
who was continually making search for her. 
The poor princess had recourse to all manner 



A.D.1471.] Eichard's Marriage. 175 

Richard finds her at last. 1 1 is marriage. 

of contrivances, and assumed the most humble 
disguises to keep herself concealed, and was at 
last reduced to a very forlorn and destitute con- 
dition, through the desperate shifts that she re- 
sorted to, in her endeavors to escape Kichard's 
persecutions. All was, however, in vain. Eich- 
ard discovered her at last in a mean house in 
London, where she was living in the disguise 
of a servant. He immediately seized her, and 
conveyed her to a place of security which was 
under his control. 

Soon after this she was taken away from this 
place and conveyed to York, and placed, for 
the time, under the protection of the archbishop 
— the same archbishop at whose enthronement, 
eight or ten years before, she had sat at the 
same table with Eichard, under the royal can- 
opy. But she was not left at peace here. Eich- 
ard insisted on her marrying him. She insist- 
ed on her refusal. Her friends— the few that 
she had left — turned against her, and urged her 
to consent to the union ; but she could not en- 
dure the thought of it. 

Eichard, however, persisted in his determina- 
tion, and Anne was finally overcome. It is said 
she resisted to the last, and that the ceremony 
was performed by compulsion, Anne continuing 
to refuse her consent to the end. It was fore- 



176 King Eichard III. 



Measures for securing the property. 




RICUAED III. 



seen that, as soon as any change of circum- 
stances should enable her to resume active re- 
sistance to the union, she would repudiate the 
marriage altogether, as void for want of her 
consent, or else obtain a divorce. To guard 
against this danger, Eichard procured the pas- 
sage of an act of Parliament, by which he was 
empowered to continue in the full possession 
and enjoyment of Anne's property, even if she 



Kichard's Marriage. 177 



Difficulty about the division of the property. 




QUEEN ANNE. 



were to divorce Jiim^ provided that lie did his best 
to be reconciled to her, and was willing to be 
re-married to her, with her consent, whenever 
she was willing to grant it. 

As for Eichard himself, his object was fully 
attained by the accomplishment of a marriage 
so far acknowledged as to entitle him to the 
possession of the property of his wife. There 
was still some difficulty, however, arising from 
a disagreement between Eichard and Clarence 
in respect to the division. Clarence, when he 
M 



178 King Eichaed III [A.D.1474. 

The quarrel becomes serious. It is at last settled by the king. 

found that Eichard would many Anne, in spite 
of all that he could do to prevent it, declared, 
with an oath, that, even if Eichard did marry 
her, he, Clarence, would never "part the liveli- 
hood," that is, divide the property with him. 

So fixed was Clarence in this resolution to 
retain all the property himself, and so resolute 
was Eichard, on the other hand, in his determ- 
ination to have his share, that the quarrel very 
soon assumed a very serious character. The 
lords and nobles of the court took part in the 
controversy on one side and on the other, un- 
til, at length, there was imminent danger of 
open war. Finally Edward himself interposed, 
and summoned the brothers to appear before 
him in open council, when, after a full hearing 
of the dispute, he said that he himself would 
decide the question. Accordingly, the two 
brothers appeared before the king, and each 
strenuously argued his own cause. The king, 
after hearing them, decided how the property 
should be divided. He gave to Eichard and 
Anne a large share, but not all that Eichard 
claimed. Eichard Was, however, compelled to 
submit. 

When the marriage was thus consummated, 
and Eichard had been put in possession of his 
portion of the property, Anne seems to have 



A.D.147-i.] Eiciiard's Marriage. 181 

Uichard' a child is born. Anne becomes more contented. 

submitted to her fate, and slie went with Eich- 
ard to Middleham Castle, in the north of En- 
gland. This castle was one which had belong- 
ed to the Warwick family, and it now came 
into Eichard's possession. Eichard did not, 
however, remain long here with his wife. He 
went away on various military expeditions, 
leaving Anne most of the time alone. She 
was well contented to be thus left, for nothing 
could be so welcome to her now as to be re- 
lieved as much as possible from the presence of 
her hateful husband. 

This state of things continued, without much 
change, until the end of about a year after »her 
marriage, when Anne gave birth to a son. The 
boy was named Edward. The possession of 
this treasure awakened in the breast of Anne 
a new interest in life, and repaid her, in some 
measure, for the sorrows and sufferings which 
she had so long endured. 

Her love for her babe, in fact, awakened in 
her heart something like a tie to bind her to 
her husband. It is hard for a mother to con- 
tinue long to hate the father of her child. 



182 King Eichard III. 

Richard's high position. Ilia character. 



Chapter IX. 
End of the Reign of Edward. 

KIKG EDWARD reigned, after this time, 
for about eight years. During this pe- 
riod, Richard continued to occupy a very high 
official position, and a very conspicuous place 
in the public mind. He was generally consid- 
ered as personally a very bad man, and, when- 
ever any great public crime was committed, in 
which the government were implicated at all, 
it was Richard, usually, who was supposed to 
be chiefly instrumental in the perpetration of 
it ; but, notwithstanding this, his fame, and the 
general consideration in which he was held, 
were very high. This was owing, in a consid- 
erable degree, to his military renown, and the 
straightforward energy and decision which char- 
acterized all his doings. 

He generally co-operated very faithfully in 
all Edward's plans and schemes, though some- 
times, when he thought them calculated to im- 
pede rather than promote the interests of the 
kingdom and the aggrandizement of the family, 
he made no secret of opposing them. As to 



1475.] Edward's Keign Ends. 183 

Edward's plan for the invasion of France. 

Clarence, no one placed any trust or confidence 
in him whatever. For a time, he and Edward 
were ostensibly on friendly terms with each 
other, but there was no cordial good- will be- 
tween them. Each watched the other with 
continual suspicion and distrust. 

About the year 1475, Edward formed a grand 
scheme for the invasion of France, in order to 
recover from the French king certain posses- 
sions which Edward claimed, on the ground of 
their having formerly belonged to his ances- 
tors. This plan, as, indeed, almost all plans of 
war and conquest were in those days, was very 
popular in England, and arrangements were 
made on an immense scale for fitting out an 
expedition. The Duke of Burgundy, who, as 
will be recollected, had married Edward's sis- 
ter, promised to join the English in this pro- 
posed war. When all was ready, the English 
army set sail, and crossed over to Calais. Ed- 
ward went with the army, as commander-in- 
chief. He was accompanied by Clarence and 
Gloucester. Thus far every thing had gone 
on well, and all Europe was watching with 
great interest for the result of the expedition ; 
but, very soon after landing, great difSculties 
arose. The Duke of Burgundy and Edward 
disagreed, and this disagreement caused great 



184 King Eichaed III. [A.D.1475. 



Character of King Louis. 



delays. The army advanced slowly toward 
the French frontier, but for two months noth- 
ing effectual was done. 
In the mean time, Louis, the King of France, 




LOUIS XI. OF FEANOE. 



who was a very shrewd and wily man, conclu- 
ded that it would be better for him to buy off 
his enemies than to fight them. So he contin- 
ually sent messengers and negotiators to Ed- 
ward's camp with proposals of various sorts, 
made to gain time, in order to enable him, by 



185 

Louis's wily management Treaty jiroposed. 

means of presents and bribes, to bny up all the 
prominent leaders and counselors of tlie expe- 
dition. He gave secretly to all the men who 
he supposed held an influence over Edward's 
mind, large sums of money. He offered, too, to 
make a treaty with Edward, by which, under 
one pretext or another, he was to pay him a 
great deal of money. One of these proposed 
payments was that of a large sum for the ran- 
som of Queen Margaret, as mentioned in a pre- 
ceding chapter. The amount of the ransom 
money which he proposed was fifty thousand 
crowns. 

Besides these promises to pay money in case 
the treaty was concluded, Louis made many 
rich and valuable presents at once. One day, 
while the negotiations were pending, he sent 
over to the English camp, as a gift to the king, 
three hundred cart-loads of wine, the best that 
could be procured in the kingdom. 

At one time, near the beginning of the affair, 
when a herald was sent to Louis from Edward 
with a very defiant and insolent message, Lou- 
is, instead of resenting the message as an affront, 
entertained the herald with great politeness, 
held a long and friendly conversation with him, 
and finally sent him away with three hundred 
crowns in his purse, and a promise of a thou- 



186 King Eichakd III. 

Arrangements made for a personal interview. 

sand more as soon as a peace should be con- 
cluded. He also made him a present of a piece 
of crimson velvet "thirty ells long." Such a 
gift as this of the crimson velvet was calculated, 
perhaps, in those days of military foppery, to 
please the herald even more than the money. 

These things, of course, put Edward and 
nearly all his followers in excellent humor, and 
disposed them to listen very favorably to any 
propositions for settling the quarrel which Ijou- 
is might be disposed to make. At last, after 
various and long protracted negotiations, a 
treaty was agreed upon, and Louis proposed 
that at the final execution of it he and Edward 
should have a personal interview. 

Edward acceded to this on certain conditions, 
and the circumstances under which the inter- 
view took place, and the arrangements which 
were adopted on the occasion, make it one of 
the most curious transactions of the whole reign. 

It seems that Edward could not place the 
least trust in Louis's professions of friendship, 
and did not dare to meet him without requir- 
ing beforehand most extraordinary precautions 
to guard against the possibility of treachery. 
So it was agreed that the meeting should take 
place upon a bridge, Louis and his friends to 
come in upon one side of the bridge, and Ed- 



Edward's Eeign Ends. 187 

The grating on the bridge. 

ward, with, his party, on the other. In order 
to prevent eitker party from seizing and carry- 
ing off the other, there was a strong barricade 
of wood built across the bridge in the middle 
of it, and the arrangement was for the King of 
France to come np to this barricade on one side, 
and the King of England on the other, and so 
shake hands and communicate with each other 
through, the bars of the barricade. 

The place where this most extraordinary roy- 
al meeting was held was called Picquigny, and 
the treaty which was made there is known in 
history as th.e Treaty of Picquigny. The town 
is on the Eiver Somme, near the city of Ami- 
ens. Amiens was at that time very near the 
French frontier. 

The day appointed for the meeting was the 
29th of August, 1475. The barricade was pre- 
pared. It was made of strong bars, crossing 
each other so as to form a grating, such, as was 
used in those days to make the cages of bears, 
and lions, and other wild beasts. The spaces 
between the bars were only large enough to al- 
low a man's arm to pass through. 

The King of France went first to the grating, 
advancing, of course, from the French side. He 
was accompanied by ten or twelve attendants, 
all men of high rank and station. He was very 



188 King Eichakd III. 

Meeting of the kings at the grating. 

splendidly dressed for the occasion. The dress 
was made of cloth of gold, with a large yZe^tr de 
lis — which was at that time the emblem of the 
French sovereignty — magnificently worked 
upon it in precious stones. 

When Louis and his party had reached the 
barricade, Edward, attended likewise by his 
friends, approached on the other side. When 
they came to the barricade, the two kings greet- 
ed each other with many bows and other saluta- 
tions, and they also shook hands with each other 
by reaching through the grating. The King 
of France addressed Edward in a very polite 
and courteous manner. " Cousin," said he, 
" you are right welcome. There is no person 
living that I have been so ambitious of seeing 
as you, and God be thanked that our interview 
now is on so happy an occasion." 

After these preliminary salutations and cere- 
monies had been concluded, a prayer-book, or 
missal, as it was called, and a crucifix, were 
brought forward, and held at the grating where 
both kings could touch them. Each of the 
kings then put his hands upon them — one hand 
on the crucifix and the other on the missal — 
and they both took a solemn oath by these 
sacred emblems that they would faithfully keep 
the treaty which they had made. 



Edward's Reign Ends. 189 

Jocose convcrsatioa of the two king3. 

After thus transacting the business which had 
brought them together, the two kings conversed 
with each other in a gay and merry manner for 
some time. T}ie King of France invited Ed- 
ward to come to Paris and make him a visit. 
This, of course, was a joke, for Edward would 
as soon think of accepting an invitation from a 
lion to come and visit him in his den, as of put- 
ting himself in Louis's power by going to Paris. 
Both monarchs and all the attendants laughed 
merrily at this jest. Louis assured Edward 
that he would have a very pleasant time at 
Paris in amusing himself with the gay ladies, 
and in other dissipations. "And then here is 
the cardinal," he added, turning to the Cardinal 
of Bourbon, an ecclesiastic of very high rank, 
but of very loose character, who was among his 
attendants, " wht) will grant you a very easy 
absolution for any sins you may take a fancy 
to commit while you are there." 

Edward and his friends were much amused 
with this sportive conversation of Louis's, and 
Edward made many smart replies, especially 
joking the cardinal, who, he knew, " was a gay 
man with the ladies, and a boon companion over 
his wine." 

This sort of conversation continued for some 
time, and at length the kings, after again shak- 



190 King Eichard III. 

Terms of the treaty. Marriage agreed upon. 

ing hands through the grating, departed each 
his own way, and thus this most extraordinary 
conference of sovereigns was terminated. 

The treaty which was thus made at the bridge 
of Picquigny contained several very important 
articles. The principal of them were the fol- 
lowing : 

1. Louis was to pay fifty thousand crowns 
as a ransom for Queen Margaret, and Edward 
was to release her from the Tower and send her 
to France as soon as he arrived in England. 

2. Louis was to pay to Edward in cash, on 
the spot, seventy -five thousand crowns, and an 
annuity of fifty thousand crowns. 

3. He was to marry his son, the dauphin, to 
Edward's oldest daughter, Elizabeth, and, iii 
case of her death, then to his next daughter, 
Mary. These parties were afl children at this 
time, and so the actual marriage was postponed 
for a time ; but it was stipulated solemnly that 
it should be performed as soon as the prince 
and princess attained to a proper age. It is 
important to remember this part of the treaty^. 
as a great and serious difficulty grew out of it 
when the time for the execution of it arrived. 

4. By the last article, the two kings bound 
themselves to a truce for seven years, during 
which time hostilities were to be entirely sus- 



1475.] Edward's Eeign Ends. 191 

Clarence and Gloucester. The people of England discontented. 

pended, and free trade between the two coun- 
tries was to be allowed. 

Clarence was with the king at the time of 
making this treaty, and he joined with the oth- 
er courtiers in giving it his approval, but Eich- 
ard would have nothing to do with it. He very 
much preferred to go on with the war, and was 
indignant that his brother should allow himself 
to be bought off, as it were, by presents and 
payments of money, and induced to consent to 
what seemed to him an ignominious peace. He 
did not give any open expression to his discon- 
tent, but he refused to be present at the confer- 
ence on the bridge, and, when Edward and the 
army, after the peace was concluded, went back 
to England, he went with them, but in very bad 
humor. 

The people of England were in very bad 
humor too. You will observe that the induce- 
ments which Louis employed in procuring the 
treaty were gifts and sums of money granted 
to Edward himself, and to his great courtiers 
personally for their own private uses. There 
was nothing in his concessions which tended 
at all to the aggrandizement or to the benefit 
of the English realm, or to promote the interest 
of the people at large. They thought, there- 
fore, that Edward and his counselors had been 



192 King Kichard III. 

Renewal of the quarrel between Edward and Clarence. 

induced to sacrifice the rights and honor of the 
crown and the kingdom to their own personal 
advantage bj a system of gross and open brib- 
ery, and they were very much displeased. 

The next great event which marks the his- 
tory of the reign of Edward, after the conclu- 
sion of this war, was the breaking out anew of 
the old feud between Edward and Clarence, and 
the dreadful crisis to which the quarrel finally 
reached. The renewal of the quarrel began in 
Edward's dispossessing Clarence of a portion of 
his property. Edward was very much embar- 
rassed for money after his return from the 
French expedition. He had incurred great 
debts in fitting out the expedition, and these 
debts the Parliament and people of England 
were very unwilling to pay, on account of their 
being so much displeased with the peace which 
had been made. Edward, consequently, not- 
withstanding the bribes which he had received 
from Louis, was very much in want of money. 
At last he caused a law to be passed by Parlia- 
ment enacting that all the patrimony of the 
royal family, which had hitherto been divided 
among the three brothers, should be resumed, 
and applied to the service of the crown. This 
made Clarence very angry. True, he was ex- 



1476.] Edwakd's Eeign Ends. 193 

Clarence retires from court. Belief in witchcraft. 

tremely rich, througli the property Avhich he 
had received by his wife from the Warwick 
estates, but this did not make him any more 
willing to submit patiently to be robbed by his 
brother. He expressed his anger very openly, 
and the ill feeling which the affair occasioned 
led to a great many scenes of dispute and crim- 
ination between the two brothers, until at last 
Clarence could no longer endure to have any 
thing to do with Edward, and he went away, 
with Isabella his wife, to a castle which he pos- 
sessed near Tewkesbury, and there remained, 
in angry and sullen seclusion. So gTeat vfas 
the animosity that prevailed at this time be- 
tween the brothers and their respective parti- 
sans, that almost every one who took an active 
part in the quarrel lived in continual anxiety 
from fear of being poisoned, or of being destroy- 
ed by incantations or witchcraft. 

Every body believed in witchcraft in these 
days. There was one peculiar species of nec- 
romancy which was held in great dread. It 
was supposed that certain persons had the pow- 
er secretly to destroy any one against whom 
they conceived a feeling of ill will in the fol- 
lowing manner : They would first make an ef- 
figy of their intended victim out of wax and 
other similar materials. This image was made 
N 



194 King Eichard III. [A.D.1477. 



Birtli of Clarence' a second son. 



the representation of the person to be destroy- 
ed by means of certain sorceries and incanta- 
tions, and then it was by slow degrees, from day 
to day, melted away and gradually destroyed. 
While the image was thns melting, the inno- 
cent and unconscious victim of the witchcraft 
would pine away, and at last, when the image 
was fairly gone, would die. 

Not very long after Clarence left the court 
and went to Tewkesbury, his wife gave birth to 
a child. It was the second son. The child was 
named Richard, and is known in history as 
Richard of Clarence. Isabella did not recover 
her health and strength after the birth of her 
child. She pined away in a slow and linger- 
ing manner for two or three months, and then 
died. 

Clarence was convinced that she did not die 
a natural death. He believed that her life had 
been destroyed by some process of witchcraft, 
such as has been described, or by poison, and 
he openly charged the queen with having in- 
stigated the murder by having employed some 
sorcerer or assassin to accomplish it. After a 
time he satisfied himself that a certain woman 
named Ankaret Twynhyo was the person 
whom the queen had employed to commit this 
crime, and watching an opportunity when this 



Edward's Eeign Ekds. 195 

New quarrels. The rich heiress. 

woman was at her own residence, away from 
all who could protect lier, he sent a body of 
armed men from among his retainers, who went 
secretly to the place, and, breaking in suddenly, 
seized the woman and bore her off to Warwick 
Castle. There Clarence subjected her to what 
he called a trial, and she was condemned to 
death, and executed at once. The charge 
against her was that she administered poison to 
the duchess in a cup of ale. So summary were 
these proceedings, that the poor woman was 
dead in three hours from the time that she ar- 
rived at the castle gates. 

These proceedings, of course, greatly exas- 
perated Edward and the queen, and made them 
hate Clarence more than ever. 

Yery soon after this, Charles, the Duke of 
Burgundy, who married Margaret, Edward and 
Clarence's sister, and who had been Edward's 
ally in so many of his wars, was killed in bat- 
tle. He left a daughter named Mary, of whom 
Margaret was the step-mother; for Mary was 
the child of the duke by a former marriage. 
Now, as Charles was possessed of immense es- 
tates, Mary, by his death, became a great heir- 
ess, and Clarence, now that his wife was dead, 
conceived the idea of making her his second 
wife. He immediately commenced negotia- 



196 King Kichard III. [A.D.1478. 



Edward and Clarence quarrel about the heiress. 

tions to this end. Margaret favored the plan, 
but Edward and Elizabeth, the queen, as soon 
as they heard of it, set themselves at work in 
the most earnest manner to thwart and circum- 
vent it. 

Their motives for opposing this match arose 
partly from their enmity to Clarence, and part- 
ly from designs of their own which they had 
formed in respect to the marriage of Mary. 
The queen wished to secure the young heiress 
for one of her brothers. Edward had another 
plan, which was to marry Mary to a certain 
Duke Maximilian. Edward's plan, in the end, 
was carried out, and Clarence was defeated. 
When Clarence found at length that the bride, 
with all the immense wealth and vastly in- 
creased importance which his marriage with her 
was to bring, were lost to him through Edward's 
interference, and conferred upon his hated rival 
Maximilian, he was terribly enraged. He ex- 
pressed his resentment and anger against the 
king in the most violent terms. 

About this time a certain nobleman, one of 
the king's friends, died. The king accused a 
priest, who was in Clarence's service, of having 
killed him by sorcery. The priest was seized 
and put to the torture to compel him to confess 
his crime and to reveal his confederates. The 



Edward's Eeign Ends. 197 

Clarence becomes furious. He is sent to the Tower. 

priest at length confessed, and named as his 
accompUce one of Clarence's household named 
Burdett, a gentleman who lived in very inti- 
mate and confidential relations with Clarence 
himself. 

The confession was taken as proof of guilt, 
and the priest and Burdett were both imme- 
diately executed. 

Clarence was now perfectly frantic with rage. 
He could restrain himself no longer. He forced 
his way into the king's council-chamber, and 
there uttered to the lords who were assembled 
the most violent and angry denunciation of the 
king. He accused him of injustice and cruelty, 
and upbraided him, and all who counseled and 
aided him, in the severest terms. 

When the king, who was not himself present 
on this occasion, heard what Clarence had done, 
he said that such proceedings were subversive 
of the laws of the realm, and destructive to all 
good government, and he commanded that Clar- 
ence should be arrested and sent to the Tower. 

After a short time the king summoned a Par- 
liament, and when the assembly was convened, 
ihe brought his brother out from his prison in 
the Tower, and arraigned him at the bar of the 
House of Lords on charges of the most extraor- 
dinary character, which he himself personally 



198 King Eichard 111. 

Clarence is accused of high treason. 

preferred against him. In these charges Clar- 
ence was accused of having formed treasonable 
conspiracies to depose the king, disinherit the 
king's <}hildren, and raise himself to the throne, 
and with this view of having slandered the 
king, and endeavored, by bribes and false rep- 
resentations, to entice away his subjects from 
their allegiance ; of having joined himself with 
the Lancastrian faction so far as to promise to 
restore them their estates which had been con- 
fiscated, provided that they would assist him in 
usurping the throne ; and of having secretly or- 
ganized an armed force, which was all ready, 
and waiting only for the proper occasion to 
strike the blow. - 

Clarence denied all these charges in the most 
earnest and solemn manner. The king insisted 
"upon the truth of them, and brought forward 
many witnesses to prove them. Of course, 
whether the charges were true or false, there 
could be no difficulty in finding plenty of wit- 
nesses to give the required testimony. The 
lords listened to the charges and the defense 
with a sort of solemn awe. Indeed, all England, 
as it were, stood by, silenced and appalled at the 
progress of this dreadful fraternal quarrel, and 
at the prospect of the terrible termination of it, 
which all could foresee must come. 



K. 







Edward's Eeign Ends. 201 

He is sentenced to death. lie is assassinated. 

AYhatever the members of Parliament may 
have thouglit of tlie truth or falsehood of the 
charges, there was only one way in which it 
was prudent or even safe for them to vote, and 
Clarence was condemned to death. 

Sentence being passed, the prisoner was re- 
manded to the Tower. 

Edward seems, after all, to have shrunk from 
the open and public execution of the sentence 
which he had caused to be pronounced against 
his brother. ISTo public execution took place, 
but in a short time it was announced that Clar- 
ence had died in prison. It was understood 
that assassins were employed to go privately 
into the room where he was confined and put 
him to death; and it is universally believed, 
though there is no positive proof of the fact, 
that Kichard was the person who made the ar- 
rangements for the performance of this deed.* 

After Clarence was dead, and the excitement 
and anger of the quarrel had subsided in Ed- 
ward's mind, he was overwhelmed with remorse 
and anguish at what he had done. He attempt- 

* There was a strange story in respect to the manner of 
Clarence's death, which Avas very current at the time, name- 
ly, that he was drowned by his brothers in a butt of Malm- 
sey wine. But there is no evidence whatever that this story 
was true. 



202 KiKG EiCHAKD III. [A.D.1480. 

Dissipation and vrickedncss of P^dward. Jane Shore. 

ed to drown tliese painful tlioiiglits by dissipa- 
tion and vice. He neglected the aifairs of Ms 
government, and his duties to his wife and fam- 
ily, and spent his time in gay pleasures with 
the ladies of his court, and in guilty carousings 
with wicked men. In these pleasures he spent 
large sums of money, wasting his patrimony' 
and all his resources in extravagance and folly. 
Among other amusements, he used to form 
hunting-parties, in which the ladies of his court 
were accustomed to join, and he used to set up 
gay silken tents for their accommodation on 
the hunting-ground. He spent vast sums, too, 
upon his dress, being very vain of his personal 
attractions, and of the favor in which he was 
held by the ladies around him. 

The most conspicuous of his various female 
favorites was the celebrated Jane Shore. She 
was the wife of a respectable citizen of London. - 
Edward enticed her away from her husband, 
and induced her to come and live at court with 
him. The opposite engraving, which is taken 
from an ancient portrait, gives undoubtedly a- 
correct representation both of her features and 
of her dress. We shall hear more of this per- 
son in the sequel. 

Things went on in this way for about two. 
years, when at length war broke out on the 



Edward's Keign Ends. 



203 



P^dward sends Richard to war. 




JANE SHOEE. 



frontiers of Scotland. Edward was too mncli 
engrossed with Ms gallantries and pleasures to 
marcli himself to meet the enemy, and so he 
commissioned Kichard to go. Eichard was 
very well pleased that his brother Edward 
should remain at home, and waste away in ef- 
feminacy and yice his character and his influ- 



204 King Eichaed III. 

Difficulties in Scotland. Edward falls sick. 

ence in the kingdom, while he went forth in 
command of the army, to acquire, by the vigor 
and success of his military career, that ascend- 
enc}^ that Edward was losing. So he took the 
command of the army and went forth to the war. 

The war was protracted for several years. 
The King of Scotland had a brother, the Duke 
of Albany, who was attempting to dethrone 
him, in order that he might reign in his stead ; 
that is, he was doing exactly that which Ed- 
ward had charged upon his brother Clarence, 
and for which he had caused Clarence to be 
killed ; and yet, with strange inconsistency, 
Edward espoused the cause of this Clarence of 
Scotland, and laid deep plans for enabling him 
to depose and supplant his brother. 

In the midst of the measures which Richard 
was taking for the execution of these plans, 
they, as well as all Edward's other earthly 
schemes and hopes, were suddenly destroyed by 
the hand of death. Edward's health had be- 
come much impaired by the dissolute life which 
he had led, and at last he fell seriously sick. 
While he was sick, an affair occurred which 
vexed and worried his mind beyond endurance. 

The reader will recollect that, at the treaty 
which Edward made with Louis of France 
at the barricade on the bridge of Picquigny, 



Edward's Keign Ends. 205 

His anger against the King of France. 

a marriage contract was concluded between 
Louis's oldest son, the Dauphin of France, and 
Edward's daughter Marj, and it was agreed 
that, as soon as the children were grown up, 
and were old enough, they should be married. 
Louis took a solemn oath upon the prayer-book 
and crucifix that he would not fail to keep this 
agreement. 

But now some years had passed away, and 
circumstances had changed so much that Louis 
did not wish to keep this promise. Edward's 
great ally, the Duke of Burgundy, was dead. 
His daughter Mary, who became the Duchess 
Mary on the death of her father, and who, so 
greatly to Clarence's disappointment, had mar- 
ried Maximilian, had succeeded to the estates 
and possessions of her father. These posses- 
sions the King of France desired very much to 
join to his dominions, as they lay contiguous 
to them, and the fear of Edward, which had 
prompted him to make the marriage contract 
with him in the first instance, had now passed 
away, on account of Edward's having become 
so much weakened by his vices and his effemi- 
nacy. He now, therefore, became desirous of 
allying his family to that of Burgundy rather 
than that of England. 

The Duchess Mary had three children, all 



206 King Eichard III. 

Death of the Duchess Mary. Louis's treachery. 



very young. The oldest, Philip, was only 
about three years old. 

Now it happened that just at this time, while 
the Duchess Mary was .out with a small party, 
hawking, near the city of Bruges, as they were 
flying the hawks at some herons, the company 
galloping on over the fields in order to keep 
up with the birds, the duchess's horse, in tak- 
ing a leap, burst the girths of the saddle, and 
the duchess was thrown off against the trunk 
of a tree. She was immediately taken up and 
borne into a house, but she was so much in- 
jured that she almost immediately died. 

Of course, her titles and estates would now 
descend to her children. The second of the 
children was a girl. Her name was Margaret. 
She was about two years old. Louis immedi- 
ately resolved to give up the match between 
the dauphin and Edward's daughter Mary, and 
contract another alliance for him with this little 
Margaret. He met with considerable difl&culty 
and delay in bringing this about, but he suc- 
ceeded at last. While the negotiations were 
pending, Edward, who suspected what was go- 
ing on, was assured that nothing of the kind 
was intended, and various false tales and pre- 
tenses were advanced by Louis to quiet his 
mind. 



1483.] P:dv.^ard's Reign Ends. 207 

Vexation and rage of Edward. His death. 

At lengtli, when all was settled, the new plan 
was openl}^ proclaimed, and great celebrations 
and parades were held in Paris in honor of the 
event. Edward was overwhelmed with vexa- 
tion and rage when he received the tidings. 
He was, however, completel}^ helpless. He lay 
tossing restlessly on his sick-bed, cursing, on 
the one hand, Louis's faithlessness and treach- 
ery, and, on the other, his own miserable weak- 
ness and pain, which made it so utterly impos- 
sible that he should do any thing to resent the 
affront. 

His vexation and rage so disturbed and wor- 
ried him that they hastened his death. "When 
he found that his last hour was drawing near, 
a new source of agitation and anguish was open- 
ed in his mind by the remorse which now be- 
gan to overwhelm him for his vices and crimes. 
Long-forgotten deeds of injustice, of violence, 
and of every species of wickedness rose before 
his mind, and terrified him with awful premo- 
nition of the anger of God and of the judgment 
to come. In his distress, he tried to make rep- 
aration for some of the grossest of the wrongs 
which he had committed, but it was too late. 
After lingering a week or two in this condition 
of distress and suffering, his spirit passed away. 



208 King Richard III. 



Effect of the tidings of Edward's death. 



Chapter X. 
Richard and Edward Y. 

AS the tidings of Edward's death, spread 
throughout England, they were received 
every where with a sentiment of anxiety and 
suspense, for no one knew what the conse- 
quences would be. Edward left two sons. Ed- 
ward, the oldest of the two, the Prince of Wales, 
was about thirteen years of age. The j^oung- 
est, whose name was Richard, was eleven. Of 
course, Edward was the rightful heir to the 
crown. Next to him in the line of succession 
came his brother, and next to them came Rich- 
ard, Duke of Gloucester, their uncle. But it 
was universally known that the Duke of Grlou- 
cester was a reckless and unscrupulous man, and 
the question in every one's mind was whether 
he would recognize the rights of his young 
nephews at all, or whether he would seize the 
crown at once for himself. 

Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was in the north- 
ern part of England at this time, at the head of 
his army. The great power which the posses- 
sion of this army gave him made people all the 



1483.] Richard and Edward V. 209 

Anxiety of Queen Elizabeth Woodville. 

more fearful that he might attempt to usurp the 
throne. 

The person who was most anxious in respect 
to the result was the widowed Queen Ehzabeth, 
the mother of the two princes. She was very 
much alarmed. The boys themselves were not 
old enough to reahze very fully the danger that 
they were in, or to render their mother much 
aid in her attempts to save them. The person 
on whom she chiefly relied was her brother, the 
Earl of Rivers. Edward, her oldest son, was 
under this uncle Rivers's care. The uncle and 
the nephew were residing together at this time 
at the castle of Ludlow.* Queen Elizabeth was 
in London with her second son. 

Immediately on the death of the king, a coun- 
cil was called to deliberate upon the measures 
proper to be taken. The council decreed that 
the Prince of Wales should be proclaimed king, 
and they fixed upon the 4th of May for the day 
of his coronation. They also made arrange- 
ments for sending orders to the Earl of Rivers 
to come at once with the young king to London, 
in order that the coronation might take place. 

Queen Elizabeth was present at this council, 
and she desired that her brother might be or- 
dered to come attended by as large an armed 

* For a view of this castle, see page 26. 

o 



210 King Eichard III. [A.D.1483. 

Attempt made by EdAvard to effect a reconciliation. 

force as lie could raise, for the protection of the 
prince on the way. 

Now it happened that there were great dis- 
sensions among the officers and nobles of the 
court at this time. The queen, with the rela- 
tives and connections of her family, formed one 
party, and the other nobles and peers of En- 
gland another party, and great was the animos- 
ity and hatred that prevailed. The English 
nobles had never been satisfied with Edward's 
marriage, and they were very jealous of the in- 
fluence of the queen's family and relations. 
This feud had been kept down in some degree 
while Edward lived, and Edward had made a 
great final effort to heal it entirely in his last 
sickness. He called together the leading nobles 
on -each side, that had taken part in this quar- 
rel, and then, by great exertion, went in among 
them, and urged them to forget their dissen- 
sions and become reconciled to each other. The 
effort for the time seemed to be successful, and 
both parties agreed to a compromise of the 
quarrel, and took a solemn oath that they would 
thenceforth live together in peace. But now, 
on the death of the king, the dissension broke 
out afresh. The other nobles were very jeal- 
ous and suspicious of every measure which 
Elizabeth proposed, especially if it tended to 




THE AITEJJPTED EECOXCILIATIOJi. 



Richard and Edward Y. 213 

Plans for bringing the young prince to London. 

continue the possession of power and influence 
in the hands of her family. Accordingly, when 
she proposed in the council to send for the earl, 
and to require him to raise a large escort to 
bring the young Prince Edward to London, 
they objected to it. 

" Against whom," demanded one of the coun- 
cilors, "is the young prince to be defended? 
Who are his enemies? He has none, and the 
real motive and design of raising this force is 
not to protect the prince, but only to secure to 
the Woodville family the means of increasing 
and perpetuating their own importance and 
power." 

The speaker upbraided the queen, too, with 
having, by this proposal, and by the attempt to 
promote the aggrandizement of the Woodville 
party which was concealed in it, been guilty of 
violating the oath of reconciliation which had 
been taken during the last sickness of the late 
king. So the council refused to authorize the 
armed escort, and the queen, with tears of dis- 
appointment and vexation, gave up the plan. 
At least she gave it up ostensibly, but she nev- 
ertheless contrived to come to some secret un- 
derstanding with the earl, in consequence of 
which he set out from the castle with the young 
prince at the head of quite a large force. Some 



214 King Eichakd III. [A.D.1483. 

Eichard's movements. Ills letter to the quee-a. 

of tlie autliorities state that he had with him 
two thousand men. 

In the mean time, Eichard of Gloucester, as 
soon as he heard of Edward's death, arranged 
his affairs at once, and made preparations to 
set out for London too. He put his army in 
mourning for the death of the king, and he 
wrote a most respectful and feeling letter of 
condolence to the queen. In this letter he 
made a solemn profession of homage and fealty 
to her son, the Prince of Wales, whom he ac- 
knowledged as rightfully entitled to the crown, 
and promised to be faithful in his allegiance to 
him, and to all the duties which he owed him. 

Queen Elizabeth's mind was much relieved 
by this letter. She began to think that she 
was going to find in Eichard an efficient friend 
to sustain her cause and that of her family 
against her enemies. 

When Eichard reached York, he made a sol- 
emn entry into that town, attended by six hund- 
red knights all dressed in deep mourning. At 
the head of this funeral procession he proceed- 
ed to the Cathedral, and there caused the obse- 
quies of the king to be celebrated with great 
pomp, and with very impressive and apparently 
sincere exhibitions of the grief which he him- 
self personally felt for the loss of his brother. 



1483.] EiCHAED AND Edward Y. 215 

lie arrives at Northampton. The king at Stony Stratford. 

After a brief delay in York, Kicliard resumed 
Ms marcli to the southward. He arranged it 
so as to overtake the party of the prince and 
the Earl of Elvers on the way. 

He arrived at the town of Northampton on 
the same day that the prince, with the Earl of 
Rivers and his escort, reached the town of Stony 
Stratford, which was only a few miles from it. 
When the earl heard that Glou.cester was so 
near, he took with him another nobleman, named 
Lord Grray, and a small body of attendants, and 
rode back to Northampton to pay his respects 
to Gloucester on the part of the young king ; 
for they considered that Edward became at 
once, by the death of his father. King of En- 
gland, under the style and title of Edward the 
Fifth. 

Gloucester received his visitors in a very 
courteous and friendly manner. He invited 
them to sup with him, and he made quite an 
entertainment for them, and for some other 
friends whom he invited to join them. The 
party spent the evening together in a very 
agreeable manner. 

They sat so long over their wine that it was 
too late for the earl and Lord Gray to return 
that night to Stony Stratford, and Richard ac- 
cordingly made arrangements for them to re- 



216 King Kichard III. 

Movements and manoeuvres at Northampton. 

main in Nortliampton. He assigned quarters 
to them in the town, and secretly set a guard 
over them, to prevent their making their escape. 
The next morning, when they arose, they were 
astonished to find themselves under guard, and 
to perceive too, as they did, that all the avenues 
of the town were occupied with troops. They 
suspected treachery, but they thought it not 
prudent to express their suspicions. Eichard, 
when he met them again in the morning, treat- 
ed them in the same friendly manner as on the 
evening before, and proposed to accompany 
them to Stony Stratford, in order that he might 
there see and pay his respects to the king. 
This was agreed to, and they all set out to- 
gether. 

In company with Eichard was one of his 
friends and confederates, the Duke of Bucking- 
ham. This Duke of Buckingham had been 
one of the leaders of the party at court that 
were opposed to the family of the queen. These 
two, together with the Earl of Eivefs and Lord 
Gray, rode on in a very friendly manner to- 
ward Stratford. They went in advance of Eich- 
ard's troops, which were ordered to follow pret- 
ty closely behind. In this manner they went 
on till they began to draw near to the town. 

Eichard now at once threw off his disguise. 



ElCHARD AND EdWARD Y. 217 

The noblemen taken into custody. Seizure of the king. 

He told the Earl of Pd vers and Lord Grray that 
the influence which they were exerting over 
the mind of the king was evil, and that he felt 
it hib duty to take the king from their charge. 

Then, at a signal given, armed men came up 
and took the two noblemen in custody. Eich- 
ard, with the Duke of Buckingham and their 
attendants, drove on with all speed into the 
town. It seems that the persons who had been 
left with Edward had, in some way or other, 
obtained intelligence of what was going on, for 
they were just upon the eve of making their 
escape with him w^hen Kichard and his party 
arrived. The horse was saddled, and the young 
king was all ready to mount. 

Kichard, when he came up to the place, as- 
sumed the command at once. He made no 
obeisance to his nephew, nor did he in any oth- 
er way seem to recognize or acknowledge him 
as his sovereign. He simply said that he would 
take care of his safety. 

" The persons that have been about you," 
said he, "have been conspiring against your 
life, but I will protect you." 

He then ordered several of the ]3rincipal of 
Edward's attendants to be arrested ; the rest he 
commanded to disperse. What became of the 
large body of men which the Earl of Eivers is 



218 King Kichard III. 

The little king is very much frightened. 

said to have had under his command does not 
appear. Whether they dispersed in obedience 
to Eichard's commands, or whether they aban- 
doned the earl and came over to Eichard's side, 
is uncertain. At any rate, nobody resisted him. 
The Earl of Elvers, Lord Gray, and the others 
were secured, with a view of being sent off pris- 
oners to the northward. Edward himself was 
to be taken with Eichard back to Northampton. 

The little king himself scarcely knew what 
to make of these proceedings. He was fright- 
ened ; and when he saw that all those personal 
friends and attendants who had had the charge 
of him so long, and to whom he was strongly 
attached, were seized and sent away, and oth- 
ers, strangers to him, put in their place, he could 
not refrain from tears. King as he was, how- 
ever, and sovereign ruler over millions of men, 
he was utterly helpless in his imcle's hands, and 
obliged to yield himself passively to the dispo- 
sition which his uncle thought best to make of 
him. 

All the accoimts of Edward represent him as 
a kind-hearted and affectionate boy, of a gentle 
spirit, and of a fair and prepossessing counte- 
nance. The ancient portraits of him which re- 
main confirm these accounts of his personal 
appearance and of his character. 



ElCHARD AND EdWARD Y. 219 



Kichard's eipJanations of his proceedings. 




AN01E>'T rOETKAIT OF KDWAE1> V. 



After having taken these necessary steps, 
and thus secured the power in his own hands, 
Eichard vouchsafed an explanation of what he 
had done to the young king. He told him that 
Earl Rivers, and Lord Gray, and other persons 
belonging to their party, "had conspired to- 
gether to rule the kynge and the realme, to 



220 King Kichakd III. [A.D.1483. 

1 dward's astonishment. He is helpless in lUchard's hands. 

sette variance among the states, and to subdue 
and destroy the noble blood of the realme," 
and that he, Eichard, had interposed to save 
Edward from their snares. He told him, more- 
over, that Lord Dorset, who was Edward's half 
brother, being the son of the queen by her first 
husband, and who had for some time held the 
office of Chancellor of the Tower, had taken out 
the king's treasure from that castle, and had 
sent much of it away beyond the sea. 

Edward, astonished and bewildered, did not 
know at first what to reply to his uncle. He 
said, however, at last, that he never heard of 
any such designs on the part of his mother's 
relatives, and he could not believe that the 
charges were true. But Eichard assured him 
that they were true, and that " his kindred had 
kepte their dealings from the knowledge of his 
grace." Satisfied or not, Edward was silenced ; 
and he submitted, since it was hopeless for him 
to attempt to resist, to be taken back in his un- 
cle's custody to Northampton. 



Taking Sanctuary. 221 



Alarm of the queen on hearing the news. 



Chapter XL 
Taking Sanctuary. 

WHEN" the news reached London that the 
kmg had been seized on the way to the 
capital, and was in Gloucester's custody, it pro- 
duced a universal commotion. Queen Elizabeth 
was thrown at once into a state of great anxie- 
ty and alarm. The tidings reached her at mid- 
night. She was in the palace at Westminster 
at the time. She rose immediately in the great- 
est terror, and began to make preparations for 
fleeing to sanctuary with the Duke of York, 
her second son. All her friends in the neigh- 
borhood were aroused and summoned to her 
aid. The palace soon became a scene of uni- 
versal confusion. Every body was busy pack- 
ing up clothing and other necessaries in trunks 
and boxes, and securing jewels and valuables 
of various kinds, and removing them to places 
of safety. In the midst of this scene, the queen 
herself sat upon the rushes which covered the 
floor, half dressed, and her long and beautiful 
locks of hair streaming over her shoulders, the 
picture of despair. 



222 King Ei chard III. [A.D.1483. 



Tisit of tlic arclibishop. Hastings's message. 

Tliero was a certain nobleman, named Lord 
Hastings, wlio had been a very prominent and 
devoted friend to Edward the Fourth during 
his life, and had consequently been upon very 
intimate and friendly terms with the queen. It 
was he, however, that had objected in the coun- 
cil to the employment of a large force to con- 
duct the young king to London, and, by so do- 
ing, had displeased the queen. Toward morn- 
ing, while the queen was in the depths of her 
distress and terror, making her preparations for 
flight, a cheering message from Hastings y/as 
brought to her, telling her not to be alarmed. 
The message was brought to her by a certain 
archbishop who had been chancellor, that is, 
had had the custody of the great seal, an im- 
pression from which was necessary to the valid- 
ity of any royal decree. He came to deliver 
up the seal to the queen, and also to bring Lord 
Hastings's message. 

"Ah, woe worth him !" said the queen, when 
the archbishop informed her that Lord Hastings 
bid her not fear. " It is he that is the cause of 
all my sorrows ; he goeth about to destroy me 
and my blood." 

"Madam," said the archbishop, "be of good 
comfort. I assure you that, if they crown any 
other king than your eldest son, whom they 



A.D.1483.] Taking Sanctuary. ' 223 

The queen is in great distress. 

have with them, we will, on the morrow, crown 
his brother, whom you have with you here. 
And here is the great seal, which, in like wise 
as your noble husband gave it to me, so I de- 
liver it to you for the use of your son." So the 
archbishop delivered the great seal into the 
queen's hands, and went away. This was just 
before the dawn. 

The words which the archbishop spoke to the 
queen did not give her much comfort. Indeed, 
her fears were not so much for her children, or 
for the right of the eldest to succeed to the 
throne, as for herself and her own personal and 
family ascendency under the reign of her son. 
She had contrived, during the lifetime of her 
husband, to keep pretty nearly all the influence 
and patronage of the government in her own 
hands and in that of her family connections, the 
Woodvilles. You will recollect how much dif- 
ficulty that had made, and how strong a party 
had been formed against her coterie. And now, 
her husband being dead, what she feared was 
not that Gloucester, in taking the young king 
away from the custody of her relatives, and 
sending those relatives off as prisoners to the 
north, meant any hostility to the young king, 
but only against her and the whole Woodville 
interest, of which she v\ras the head. She sup- 



224 * King Eichard III. 

Uncertainty in respect to Gloucester's designs. 

posed that Gloucester would now put the power 
of the government in the hands of other fami- 
lies, and banish hers, and that perhaps he would 
even bring her to trial and punishment for acts 
of maladministration, or other political crimes 
which he would charge against her. It was 
fear of this, rather than any rebellion against 
the right of Edward the Fifth to reign, which 
made her in such haste to flee to sanctuary. 

It was, however, somewhat uncertain what 
(jrloucester intended to do. His professions 
were all very fair in respect to his allegiance to 
the young king. He sent a messenger to Lon- 
don, immediately after seizing the king, to ex- 
plain his views and motives in the act, and in 
this communication he stated distinctly that his 
only object was to prevent the king's falling 
into the hands of the Woodville family, and 
not at all to oppose his coronation. 

" It neyther is reason," said he in his letter, 
" nor in any wise to be suffered that the young 
kynge, our master and kinsman, should be in 
the hands of custody of his mother's kindred, 
sequestered in great measure from our compa- 
nie and attendance, the which is neither honor- 
able to hys majestic nor unto us." 

Thus the pretense of Eichard in seizing the 
king was simply that he might prevent the gov- 



Taking Sanctuary. 226 

Arrest of the leading men in the "Woodville party. 

ernment under him from falling into the hands 
of his mother's party. But the very decisive 
measures he took in respect to the leading mem- 
bers of the Yv^oodville family led many to sus- 
pect that he was secretly meditating a deeper 
design. All those who were with the king at 
the time of his seizure were made prisoners and 
sent off to a castle in the north, as we have 
already said; and, in order to prevent those 
who were in and near London from making 
their escape, Eichard sent down immediately 
from Northampton ordering their arrest, and 
appointing guards to prevent any of them from 
flying to sanctuary. When the archbishop, 
who had called to see the queen at the palace, 
went away, he saw through the window, al- 
though it was yet before the dawn, a number 
of boats stationed on the Thames ready to in- 
tercept any who might be coming up the river 
with this intent from the Tower, for several in- 
fluential members of the family resided at this 
time at the Tower. 

The queen herself, however, as it happened, 
was at Westminster Palace, and she had accord- 
ingly but little way to go to make her escape 
to the Abbey. 

The space which was inclosed by the conse- 
crated limits, from within which prisoners could 
P 



226 King Eichard III. 

The queen " on ths rushes." Ker daughters. 

not be taken, was somewhat extensive. It in- 
cluded not only tlie cliurcli of the Abbey, but 
also the Abbey garden, the cemetery, the palace 
of the abbot, the cloisters, and various other 
buildings and grounds included within the in- 
closure. As soon as the queen entered these 
precincts, she sank down upon the floor of the 
hall, " alone on the rushes, all desolate and dis- 
mayed." It was in the month of May, and 
the great fire-place of the hall was filled with 
branches of trees and flowers, while the floor, 
according to the custom of the time, was strew- 
ed with green rushes. For a time the queen 
was so overwhelmed with her sorrow and cha- 
grin that she was scarcely conscious where she 
was. But she was soon aroused from her de- 
spondency by the necessity of making proper 
arrangements for herself and her family in her 
new abode. She had two daughters with her, 
Elizabeth and Cecily — beautiful girls, seven- 
teen and fifteen years of age ; Eichard, Duke 
of York, her second son, and several younger 
children. The youngest of these children, 
Bridget, was only three years old. Elizabeth, 
the oldest, afterward became a queen, and little 
Bridget a nun. 

The rooms which the queen and her family 
occupied in the sanctuary are somewhat partic- 



Taking Sanctuary. 229 

Description of the sanctuary. Apartments. 

ularly described by one of the writers of those 
days. The fire-place, where the trees and flow- 
ers were placed, was in the centre of the hall, 
and there was an opening in the roof above, 
called a louvre^ to allow of the escape of the 
smoke. This hearth still remains on the floor 
of the hall, and the louvre is still to be seen in 
the roof above."^ The end of the hall was form- 
ed of oak panneling, with lattice-work above, 
the use of which will presently appear. A part 
of this panneling was formed of doors, which 
led by winding stairs up to a curious congeries 
of small rooms formed among the spaces be- 
tween the walls and towers, and under the arch- 
es above. Some of these rooms were for pri- 
vate apartments, and others were used for the 
offices of buttery, kitchen, laundry, and the like. 
At the end of this range of apartments was the 
private sitting-room and study of the abbot. 
The windows of the abbot's room looked down 
upon a pretty flower-garden, and there was a 
passage from it which led by a corridor back 
to the lattices over the doors in the hall, through 
which the abbot could look down into tte hall 
at any time without being observed, and see 
what the monks were doing there. 

* The room is now the college hall, so called, of West- 
minster school. 



230 King Eichard III. [A.D.1483. 

The Jerusalem chamber. Richard' 3 plans ia respect to the coronation. 

Besides these there were other large apart- 
ments, called state apartments, which were used 
chiefly on great public occasions. These rooms 
were larger, loftier, and more richly decorated 
than the others. They were ornamented with 
oak carvings and fluting, painted windows, and 
other such decorations. There was one in par- 
ticular, which was called the Jerusalem cham- 
ber. This was the grand receiving-room of the 
abbot. It had a great Gothic window of paint- 
ed glass, and the walls were hung with curious 
tapestry. This room, with the window, the 
tapestry, and all the other ornaments, remains 
to this day. 

It was on the night of the third of May that 
the queen and her family " took sanctuary." 
The very next day, the fourth, was the day that 
the council had appointed for the coronation. 
But Richard, instead of coming at once to Lon- 
don, after taking the king under his charge, so 
as to be ready for the coronation at the appoint- 
ed day, delayed his journey so as not to enter 
London until that day. He wished to prevent 
the coronation from taking place, having prob- 
ably other plans of his own in view instead. 

It is not, however, absolutely certain that 
Eichard intended, at this time, to claim the 
crown for himself, for in entering London he 



Taking Sanctuary. 231 

Keception of Richard' s party at London. 

formed a grand procession, giving the young 
king the place of honor in it, and doing hom- 
age to him as king. Kichard himself and all 
his retinue were in mourning. Edward was 
dressed in a royal mantle of purple velvet, and 
rode conspicuously as the chief personage of 
the procession. A short distance from the city 
the cavalcade was met by a procession of the 
civic authorities of London and five hundred 
citizens, all sumptuously appareled, who had 
come out to receive and welcome their sover- 
eign, and to conduct him through the gates into 
the city. In entering the city Eichard rode im- 
mediately before the king, with his head uncov- 
ered. He held his cap in his hand, and bowed 
continually very low before the king, designa- 
ting him in this way to the citizens as the ob- 
ject of their homage. He called out also, from 
time to time, to the crowds that thronged the 
waysides to see, " Behold your prince and sov- 
ereign." 

There were two places to which it might 
have been considered not improbable that Eich- 
ard would take the king on his arrival at the 
capital — one the palace of Westminster, at the 
upper end of London, and the other the Tower, 
at the lower end. The Tower, though often 
used as a prison, was really, at that time, a 



232 King Eichard III. 

Richard establishes his court. Dorset. 

castle, where tlie kings and the members of the 
royal family often resided. Eichard, however, 
did not go to either of these places at first, but 
proceeded instead to the bishop's palace at St. 
Paul's, in the heart of the city. Here a sort of 
court was established, a grand council of nobles 
and officers of state was called, and for some 
days the laws were administered and the gov- 
ernment was carried on from this place, all, 
however, in Edward's name. Money was coin- 
ed, also, with his e&igj and inscription, and, in 
fine, so far as all essential forms and technicali- 
ties were concerned, the young Edward was 
really a reigning king; but, of course, in respect 
to substantial power, every thing was in Eich- 
ard's hands. 

The reason why Eichard did not proceed at 
once to the Tower was probably because Dor- 
set, the queen's son, was in command there, 
and he, as of course he was identified with the 
Woodville party, might perhaps have made 
Eichard some trouble. But Dorset, as soon as 
he heard that Eichard was coming, abandoned 
the Tower, and fled to the sanctuary to join his 
mother. Accordingly, after waiting a few days 
at the bishop's palace until the proper arrange- 
ments could be made, the king, with the whole 
party in attendance upon him, removed to the 



Taking Sanctuary. 283 

The queen's friends dismissed. Eichard's titles. 

Tower, and took up their residence there. The 
king was nominally in his castle, with Richard 
and the other nobles and their retinue in at- 
tendance upon him as his guards. Really he 
was in a prison, and his uncle, with the people 
around him who were under his uncle's com- 
mand, were his keepers. 

A meeting of the lords was convened, and 
various political arrangements were made to 
suit Richard's views. The principal members 
of the Woodville family were dismissed from 
the offices which they held, and other nobles, 
who were in Richard's interest, were appointed 
in their place. A new day was appointed for 
the coronation, namely, the 22d of June. The 
council of lords decreed also that, as the king 
was yet too young to conduct the government 
himself personally, his uncle Gloucester was, 
for the present, to have charge of the adminis- 
tration of public affairs, under the title of Lord 
Protector. The title in full, which Richard 
thenceforth assumed under this decree, was, 
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, brother and uncle 
of the king. Protector and Defender, Great 
Chamberlain, Constable, and Lord High Ad- 
miral of England. 

During all this time the city of London, and, 
indeed, the whole realm of England, as far as 



284 King Richakd III. [A.D.1483. 



Anxiety of the people of England. 



the tidings of what was going on at the capital 
Bpread into the interior, had been in a state of 
the greatest excitement. The nobles, and the 
courtiers of all ranks, were constantly on the 
alert, full of anxiety and solicitude, not know- 
ing which side to take or what sentiments to 
avow. They did not know what turn things 
would finally take, and, of course, could not tell 
what they were to do in order to be found, in 
the end, on the side that was uppermost. The 
common people in the streets, with anxious 
looks and many fearful forebodings, discussed 
the reports and rumors that they had heard. 
They all felt a sentiment of loyal and affection- 
ate regard for the king — a sentiment which was 
increased and strengthened by his youth, his 
gentle disposition, and the critical and helpless 
situation that he was in ; while, on the other 
hand, the character of Grloucester inspired them 
with a species of awe which silenced and sub- 
dued them. Edward, in his ' ' protector's" hands, 
seemed to them like a lamb in the custody of 
a tiger. 

The queen, all this time, remained shut up 
in the sanctuary, in a state of extreme suspense 
and anxiety, clinging to the children whom she 
had with her, and especially to her youngest 
son, the little Duke of York, as the next heir to 



A.D.1483.] Taking Sanctuaky. 235 



Forlorn situation of the queen. 







THE PEOPLE IN THE STREETS. 



the crown, and her only stay and hope, in case, 
through Richard's violence or treachery, any 
calamity should befall the king. 



236 King Eichard III. [A.D.1483. 

Eichard forms plans for seizing the crown. 



Chapter XII. 
Eichard Lord Protector. 

WHAT sort of protection Eichard afforded 
to the young wards who were commit- 
ted to his charge will appear by events narra- 
ted in this chapter. 

It was now June, and the day, the twenty- 
second, which had been fixed npon for the cor- 
onation, was drawing nigh. By the ancient 
usages of the realm of England, the office of Pro- 
tector, to which Eichard had been appointed, 
would expire on the coronation of the king. 
Of course, Eichard perceived at once that if 
he wished to prolong his power he must act 
promptly. 

He began to revolve in his mind the possibility 
of assuming the crown himself, and displacing 
the children of his older brothers ; for Clarence 
left children at his decease as well as Edward. 
Of course, these children of Cla-rence, as well as 
those of Edward, would take precedence of him 
in the line of succession, being descended from 
an older brother. Eichard therefore, in order 
to establish any claim to the crown for himself, 



Richard Lord Protector. 237 



His plan for disposing of Edward's children. 




OLAEENCE 8 CHILDBEN HBAEENG OF THEIR FATHER S DEATH. 



must find some pretext for setting aside both 
these branches of the family. The pretexts 
which he found were these. 

In respect to the children of Edward, his plan 
was to pretend to have discovered proof of Ed- 
ward's having been privately married to an- 
other lady before his marriage with Elizabeth 



238 King Eichard III. 

Clarence's children. Lady Cecily. Eaynard's Castle. 

Woodville. This would, of course, render the 
marriage with Elizabeth Woodville null, and 
destroy the rights of the children to any inherit- 
ance from their father. 

In respect to iJie children of Clarence, he was 
to maintain that they were cat off by the at- 
tainder which had been passed against their 
father. A bill of attainder, according to the 
laws and usages of those times, not only doom- 
ed the criminal himself to death, but cut off his 
children from all rights of inheritance. It was 
intended to destroy the family as well as the 
man. 

Eichard, however, did not at once reveal his 
plans, but proceeded cautiously to take the prop- 
er measures for putting them into execution. 

In the first place, there was his mother to be 
conciliated, the Lady Cecily Neville, known, 
however, more generally by the title of the 
Duchess of York. She lived at this time in an 
old family residence called Baynard's Castle, 
which stood on the banks of the Thames.* As 
soon as Eichard arrived in London he went to 
see his mother at this place, and afterward he 
often visited her there. How far he explained 
his plans to her, and how far she encouraged or 
disapproved of them, is not known. If she was 

* For a vicAv of this castle, see engraving on page 273. 



Richard Lord Protector. 239 

Situation of the queen's friends at Pomfret Castle. 

required to act at all in the case, it must have 
been very hard for her, in such a question of 
life and death, to decide between her youngest 
son alive and the children of her first-born in 
his grave. Mothers can best judge to which 
side, in such an alternative, her maternal sym- 
pathies would naturally incline her. 

As for the immediate members of the "Wood- 
ville family, they were already pretty well taken 
care of. The queen herself, with her children, 
were shut up in the sanctuary. Her brothers, 
and the other influential men who were most 
prominent on her side, had been made prison- 
ers, and sent to Pomfret Castle in the north. 
Here they were held under the custody of men 
devoted to Richard's interest. But to prevent 
the possibility of his having any farther trouble 
with them, Richard resolved to order them to 
be beheaded. This resolution was soon carried 
into effect, as we shall presently see. 

There remained the party of nobles and 
courtiers that were likely to be hostile to the 
permanent continuance of the power of Rich- 
ard, and inclined to espouse the cause of the 
young king. The nobles had not yet distinctly 
taken ground on this question. There were, 
Aowever, some who were friendly to Richard. 
Others seemed more inclined to form a party 



240 King Eichard III. 

Lord Hastings. Richard's councils. The To^ve^. 

against him. The prominent man among this 
last-named set was Lord Hastings. There were 
several others besides, and Eichard knew very 
well who they were. In order to circumvent 
and defeat any plans which they might be dis- 
posed to form, and to keep the power fully in 
his own hands, he convened his councils of state 
at different places, sometimes at Westminster, 
sometimes at the Tower, where the king was 
kept, and sometimes at his own residence, which 
was in the heart of London. He transferred 
the public business more and more to his own 
residence, assembling the councilors there at 
all times, late and early, and thus withdrawing 
them from attendance at the Tower. Yery 
soon Eichard' s residence in London became the 
acknowledged head-quarters of influence and 
power, and all who had petitions to present or 
favors to obtain gathered there, while the king 
in the Tower was neglected, and left compara- 
tively alone. 

Still the form of holding a council from time 
to" time at the Tower was continued, and, of 
course, the nobles who assembled there were 
those most inclined to stand by and defend the 
cause of the king. 

Such was the state of things on the 13th of 
June, nine days before the time appointed for 



KiCHARD Lord Protector. 241 

Nobles in council at the Tower. 

the coronation. Eicliard then, having carefully 
laid his plans, was ]Drepared to take decisive 
measures to break up the party who were dis- 
posed to gather around the king at the Tow^r 
and espouse his cause. 

On that day, while these nobles were holding 
a council in the Tower, suddenly, and greatly 
to their surprise, Eichard walked in among 
them. He assumed a very good-natured and 
even merry air as he entered and took his seat, 
and began to talk with those present in a very 
friendly and familiar tone. This was for the 
purpose of lulling any suspicions which they 
might have felt on seeing him appear among 
them, and prevent them from divining the 
dreadful intentions with which he had come. 

" My lord," said he, turning to a bishop who 
sat near him, and who was one of those that he 
was about to arrest, " you have some excellent 
strawberries in your garden, I understand. I 
wish you would let me have a plateful of 
them." 

It was about the middle of June, you will 
recollect, which was the time for strawberries 
to be ripe. 

The bishop was very much pleased to find 
the great Protector taking such an interest in 
his strawberries, and he immediately called a 

Q 



242 King Eichakd III. [A.D.1483. 

Eichard's proceedings at the council. 

servant and sent him away at once to bring 
some of the fruit. 

After having greeted the other nobles at the 
board in a somewhat similar style to this, with 
jocose and playful remarks, which had the ef- 
fect of entirely diverting from their minds every 
thing like suspicion, he said that he must go 
away for a short time, but that he would pres- 
ently return. In the mean time, they might 
proceed, he said, with their deliberations on the 
public business. 

So he went out. He proceeded at once to 
make the preparations necessary for the accom- 
plishment of the desperate measures which he 
had determined to adopt. He stationed armed 
men at the doors and the passages of the part 
of the Tower where the council was assembled, 
and gave them instructions as to what they 
were to do, and agreed with them in respect to 
the signals which he was to give. 

In about an hour he returned, but his whole 
air and manner were now totally changed. He 
came in with a frowning and angry counte- 
nance, knitting his brows and setting his teeth, 
as if something had occurred to put him in a 
great rage. He advanced to the council table, 
and there accosting Lord Hastings in a very 
excited and angry manner, he demanded, 



RiCHAED Lord Protector. 243 

Richard's proceedings at the council. 



''What punisliment do you think men de- 
serve who form plots and schemes for my de- 
struction?" 

Lord Hastings was amazed at this sudden ap- 
pearance of displeasure, and he replied to the 
Protector that such men, if there were any such, 
most certainly deserved death, whoever they 
might be. 

" It is that sorceress, my brother's wife," said 
Richard, " and that other vile sorceress, worse 
than she, Jane Shore. See!" 

This allusion to Jane Shore was somewhat 
ominous for Hastings, as it was generally un- 
derstood that since the king's death Lord Hast- 
ings had taken Jane Shore under his protection, 
and had lived in great intimacy with her. 

As Richard said this, he pulled up the sleeve 
of his doublet to the elbow, to let the company 
look at his arm. This arm had always been 
weak, and smaller than the other. 

" See," said he, " what they are doing to me." 

He meant that by the power of necromancy 
they had made an image of wax as an efQ.gj of 
him, according to the mode explained in a pre- 
vious chapter, and were now melting it away 
by slow degrees in order to destroy his life, and 
that his arm was beginning to pine and wither 
away in consequence. 



244 King Eichakd III. 



Scene in the council chamber at the Tower. 




TlIE COUNCIL IN THE TOWEK. 



The lords knew very well tliat tlie state in 
wliicli they saw Eichard's arm was its natural 
condition, and that, consequently, his charge 
against the queen and Jane Shore was only a 
pretense, which was to be the prelude and ex- 
cuse for some violent measures that he was 
about to take. They scarcely knew what to 
say. At last Lord Hastings replied, 

*' Certainly, my lord, if they have committed 
so heinous an offense as this, they deserve a 
very heinous punishment." 

"If!" repeated the Protector, in a voice of 



Richard Lord Protector. 245 

He makes signals for the armed mea to come in. 

thunder. "And tkoii servest me, then, it seems, 
with ifs and ands. I tell thee that they have 
so done — and I will make what I say good 
upon thy body, traitor !" 

He emphasized and confirmed this threat by 
bringing down his fist with a furious blow upon 
the table. 

This was one of the signals which he had 
agreed upon with the people that he had sta- 
tioned without at the door of the council hall. 
A voice was immediately heard in the ante- 
chamber calling out Treason. This was again 
another signal. It was a call to a band of arm- 
ed men whom Richard had stationed in a con- 
venient place near by, and who were to rush in 
at this call. Accordingly, a sudden noise was 
heard of the rushing of men and the clanking 
of iron, and before the councilors could recover 
from their consternation the table was sur- 
rounded with soldiery, all " in harness," that is, 
completely armed, and as fast as the foremost 
came in and gathered around the table, others 
pressed in after them, until the room was com- 
♦pletely full. 

Richard, designating Hastings with a gesture, 
said suddenly, "I arrest thee, traitor." 

" What! me, my lord?" exclaimed Hastings, 
in terror. 



246 King Eichard III. 

Hastings is executed. Orders sent to the north. 

" Yes, thee, traitor." 

Two or three of the soldiers immediately 
seized Hastings and prepared to lead him 
away. Other soldiers laid hands upon several 
of the other nobles, such as Eichard had desig- 
nated to them beforehand. These, of course, 
were the leading and prominent men of the 
party opposed to Eichard's permanent ascend- 
ency. Most of these men were taken away and 
secured as prisoners in various parts of the 
Tower. As for Hastings, Eichard, in a stern 
and angry manner, advised him to lose no time 
in saying his prayers, "for, by the Lord," said 
he, "I will not to dinner to-day till I see thy 
head off." 

Then, after a brief delay, to allow the wretch- 
ed man a few minutes to say his prayers, Eich- 
ard nodded to the soldiers to signify to them 
that they were to proceed to their work. They 
immediately took their victim out to a green 
by the side of the Tower, and, laying him down 
with his neck across a log which they found 
there, they cut off his head with a broad-axe. 

The same day Eichard sent off a dispatch to 
the north, directed to the men who had in 
charge the Earl Bivers, and the other friends of 
ithe king who had been made prisoners when 
the king was seized at Stony Stratford, order- 



Ikr 






if 
i 




EiciiARD Lord Protector. 249 

I xecution of the prisoners at Tomfret Castle. 

ing tliem all to be beheaded. The order was 
immediately obeyed. 

The person who had charge of the execution 
of this order was a stern and ruffian-like officer 
named Sir Eichard Eatcliffe. This man is quite 
noted in the history of the times as one of the. 
most unscrupulous of Eichard's adherents. He 
was a merciless man, short and rude in speech, 
and reckless in action, destitute alike of all pity 
for man and of all fear of God. 

The place where the prisoners had been con- 
fined was Pomfret Castle.^* On receiving the 
orders from Eichard, Eatcliife led them out to 
an open place without the castle wall to be be- 
headed. The executioners brought. a log and 
an axe, and the victims were slaughtered one 
after another, without any ceremony, and with- 
out being allowed to say a word in self-defense. 

The whole country was shocked at hearing 
of these sudden and terrible executions ; but 
the power was in Eichard's hands, and there was 
no one capable of resisting him. The death of 
the leaders of what would have been the young 
king's party struck terror into the rest, and 
Eichard now had every thing in his own hands, 
or, rather, almost every thing; for the queen 
and her family, being still in the sanctuary, 

* Called sonic'times Pontefract. 



250 King Eichaed III. [A.D.1483. 

Eichard' s plans in respect to the Duke of York. 

were beyond liis reach. He^ liowever, liad noth- 
ing to fear from her personally, and there were 
none of the children that gave him any concern 
except the Dnke of York, the king's yonnger 
brother. He, yon will recollect, was with his 
mother at Westminster when the king was 
seized, and she had taken him with the other 
children to the Abbey. Eichard was now ex- 
tremely desirous of getting possession of this 
boy. 

The reason why he deemed it so essential to 
get possession of him was this. The child was, 
it is true, of little consequence while his broth- 
er the king lived; bnt if the king were put 
out of the way, then the thoughts and the hearts 
of all the loyal people of England, Eichard 
knew very well, would be turned toward York 
as the rightful successor. But if they could 
both be put out of the way, and if the people 
of England could be induced to consider Clar- 
ence's children as set aside by the attainder of 
their father, then he himself would come for- 
ward as the true and rightful heir to the crown. 
It is true that it was a part of his plan, as has 
already been said, to declare the marriage of 
Elizabeth Woodville with the king nu.1], and 
thus cut off both these children of Edward from, 
their right of inheritance ; but he knew very 



EicHARD Lord Protector. 251 

He determines to seize him. 

well that even if a majority of the people of 
England were to assent to this, there would cer- 
tainly be a minority that would refuse their as- 
sent, and would adhere to the cause of the chil- 
dren, and they, if the children should fall into 
their hands, might, at some future time, make 
themselves very formidable to him, and threat- 
en very seriously the permanence of his do- 
minion. It was quite necessary, therefore, he 
thought, that he should get both children into 
his own power. 

"I must," said he to himself, therefore, "I 
must, in some way or other, and at all hazards, 
get possession of little Eichard." 

It is always the policy of usurpers, and of all 
ambitious and aspiring men who wish to seize 
and hold power which does not properly belong 
to them, to carry the various measures neces- 
sary to the attainment of their ends, especially 
those likely to be unpopular, not by their own 
personal action, but by the agency of others, 
whom they put forward to act for them. Rich- 
ard proceeded in this way in the present in- 
stance. He called a grand council of the peers 
of the realm and great officers of state, and 
caused the question to be brought up there of 
removing the young Duke of York from the 
custody of his mother to that of the Protector, 



252 King Eichaed III. 

The case of the little Richard argued. 

in order that lie might be with his brother. The 
peers who were in Eichard's interest advocated 
this plan ; but all the bishops and archbishops, 
who, of course, as ecclesiastics, had very high 
ideas of the sacredness and inviolability of a 
sanctuary, opposed the plan of taking the duke 
away except by the consent of his mother. 

The other side argued in reply to them that 
a sanctuary was a place where persons could 
seek refuge to escape punishment in case of 
crime, and that where no crime could have been 
committed, and no charges of crime were made, 
the principle did not apply. In other words, 
that the sanctuary was for men and women 
who had been guilty, or were supposed to have 
been guilty, of violations of law ; but as chil- 
dren could commit no crime for which an asy- 
lum was necessary, the privileges of sanctuary 
did not extend to them. 

This view of the subj ect prevailed. The bish- 
ops and archbishops were outvoted, and an or- 
der in council was passed authorizing the Lord 
Protector to possess himself of his nephew, the 
Duke of York, and for this purpose to take him, 
if necessary, out of sanctuary by force. 

Still, the bishops and archbishops were very 
unwilling that force should be used, if it could 
possibly be avoided ; and finally the Archbish- 



KiCHARD Lord Protectoh. 253 

Delegation sent to the Tower. 

op of Canterbury, who was the highest prelate 
in the realm, proposed that a deputation from 
the council should be sent to the Abbey, and 
that he should go with them, in order to see 
the queen, and make the attempt to persuade 
her to give up her son of her own accord. 

After giving notice to the abbot of their in- 
tended visit, and making an arrangement with 
him and with the queen in respect to the time 
when they could be received, the delegation 
proceeded in state to the Abbey on the appoint- 
ed day, and were received by the abbot and by 
Elizabeth with due ceremony in the Jerusalem 
chamber, the great audience hall of the Abbey, 
which has already been described. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who was at 
the head of the delegation, explained the case 
to the queen. They wished her, he said, to al- 
low her son, the Duke of York, to leave the 
sanctuary, and to join his brother the king at 
his royal residence in the Tower. He would 
be perfectly safe there, he said, under the care 
of his uncle, the Lord Protector. 

'' The Protector thinks it very necessary that 
the duke should go," added the archbishop, 
" to be company for his brother. The king is 
very melancholy, he says, for want of a play- 
fellow." 



254 King Eichakd III. 

Interview with the mother of the princes. 

" And SO the Protector," replied tlie queen— 
" God grant that he may really prove a pro- 
tector — thinks that the king needs a playfel- 
low ! And can no playfellow be found for him 
except his brother ? 

"Besides," she added, "he is not in a mood 
to play. He is not well. They must find some 
other playmate for his brother. Just as if 
princes, while they are so young, could not as 
well have some one to play with them not of 
their own rank, or as if a boy must have his 
brother, and nobody else for his mate, when 
every body knows that boys are more likely 
to disagree with their brothers than they are 
with other children." 

The archbishop, in reply, proceeded to argue 
the case with the queen, and to represent the 
necessity, arising from reasons of state, why the 
young duke should be committed to the charge 
of his uncle. He explained to her, too, that the 
Lord Protector had been fully authorized, by a 
decree of the council, to come and take his 
nephew from the Abbey, and to employ force, if 
necessary, to effect the purpose, but that it would 
be much better, both for the queen herself and 
the young duke, as well as for all concerned, 
that the affair should be settled in a peaceable 
and amicable manner. 



KiCHARD Lord Protector. 255 

The qneen U forced to give up the child. 

The unhappy queen saw at last that there 
was no alternative but for her to submit to her 
fate and give up her boy. Slowly and reluc- 
tantly she came to this conclusion, and finally 
gave her consent. Eichard was brought in. 
His mother took him by the hand, and again 
addressed the archbishop and the delegation, 
speaking substantially as follows : 

" My lord," said sh^, '^ and all my lords now 
present, I will not be so suspicious as to mis- 
trust the promises you make me, or to believe 
that you are dealing otherwise than fairly and 
honorably by me. Here is my son. I give 
him up to your charge. I have no doubt that 
he would be safe here under my protection, if 
I could be allowed to keep him with me, al- 
though I have enemies that so hate me and all 
my blood, that I believe, if they thought they 
had any of it in their own veins, they would 
open them to let it flow out. 

'' I give him up, at your demand, to the pro- 
tection of his brother and his uncle. And yet 
I know well that the desire of a kingdom knows 
no kindred. Brothers have been their broth- 
ers' bane, and can these nephews be sure of their 
uncle ? The boys would be safe if kept asun- 
der ; together — I do not know. ISTeverthelesSj 
I here deliver my son, and with him his broth- 



256 King Kichard III. [A.D.1483. 

The parting scene. The prince is taken away. 

er's life, into your hands, and of you shall I re- 
quire them both, before God and man. I know- 
that you are faithful and true in what you in- 
tend, and you have power, moreover, to keep 
the children safe, if you will. If you think that 
I am over-anxious and fear too much, take care 
that- you j^ourselves do not fear too little." 

Then drawing Eichard to her, she kissed him 
very lovingly, the tears coming to her eyes as 
she did so. 

"Farewell," she said, "farewell, mine own 
sweet son. God send you good keeping. I 
must kiss you before you go, for God knows 
when we shall kiss together again." 

She kissed him again and blessed him, and 
then turned to go away, weeping bitterly. 

The child began to weep too, from sympathy 
with his mother's distress. The archbishop, 
however, took him by the hand and led him 
away, followed by the rest of the delegation. 

They conveyed the young duke first to the 
hall of the council, w^hich was very near, and 
thence to the Lord Protector's residence in the 
city. Here he was received with every mark 
of consideration and honor, and a handsome es- 
cort was provided to conduct him in state to 
the Tower, where he joined his brother. 

Richard had now every thing under his own 



Richard Lord Protector. 257 

Both princes entirely in Richard's power. 

control. The delivery of the Duke of York 
into his hands took place on the sixteenth of 
June. The time which had been set for the 
coronation was the twenty-second. 
R 



258 King Eichard III. [A.D.1483. 

The Duke of Buckingham. Historical doubts. 



Chapter XIII. 
Proclaimed King. 

EICHAED, having thus obtained control of 
every thing essential to the success of his 
plans, began to prepare for action. His chief 
friend and confederate, the one on whom he re- 
lied most for the execution of the several meas- 
ures which he proposed to take, was a powerful 
nobleman named the Duke of Buckingham. I 
shall proceed in this chapter to describe the suc- 
cessive steps of the course which Eichard and 
the Duke of Buckingham pursued in raising 
Eichard to the throne, as recorded by the dif- 
ferent historians of those days, and as generally 
believed since, though, in fact, there have been 
great disputes in respect to these occurrences, 
and it is now quite difficult to ascertain witli 
certainty what the precise truth of the case 
really is. This, however, is, after all, of no great 
practical importance, for, in respect to remote 
transactions of this nature, the thing which is 
most necessary for the purposes of general edu- 
cation is to understand what the story is, in 
detail, which has been generally received among 



Proclaimed King. 259 

Richard at Baynard's Castle. The expense-book. 

mankind, and to wliicli the allusions of orators 
and poets, and the discussions of statesmen and 
moralists in subsequent ages refer, for it is with 
this story alone that for all the purposes of gen- 
eral reading we have any thing to do. 

Kichard was residing at this time chiefly at 
Baynard's Castle with his mother.* The young 
king and his brother, the Duke of York, were 
in the Tower. They were not nominally pris- 
oners, but yet Richard kept close watch and 
ward over them, and took most effectual pre- 
cautions to prevent their making their escape. 
The queen, Elizabeth Woodville, with her 
daughters, was in the sanctuary. Richard's 
wife, with the young child, was still at Middle- 
ham Castle. 

It is a very curious circumstance, showing 
how sometimes records of the most trivial and 
insignificant things come down to us from an- 
cient times in a clear and certain form, while 
all that is really important to know is involved 
in doubt and obscurity — that the household ex- 
pense-book of Anne at Middleham is still ex- 
tant, showing all the little items of expense in- 
curred for Richard's son, while all is dispute and 
uncertainty in respect to the great political 

* For view of this castle, see page 273. 



260 King Kichard III. 

Items from the expense-book. Richard's plans. 



scliemes and measures of liis father. In this 
book there is a charge of 22s. dd. for a piece 
of green cloth, and another of Is. 8d. for mak- 
ing it into gowns for '' my lord prince." There 
is also a charge of 5s. for a feather for him, and 
18s. Id. paid to a shoemaker, named Dirick, for 
a pair of shoes. This expense-book was con- 
tinued after Anne left Middleham Castle to go 
to London, as will be presently related. There 
are several charges on the journey for offerings 
and gifts made by the child at churches on the 
way. Two men were paid 6s. 8d. for running 
on foot by the side of his carriage. These 
men's names were Medcalf and Pacock. There 
is also a charge of 2d for mending a whip ! 

But to return to our narrative. The time for 
the coronation of Edward the Eifth was draw- 
ing near, but Kichard intended to prevent the 
performance of this ceremony, and to take the 
crown for himself instead. The first thing was 
to put in circulation the story that his two 
nephews were not the legitimate children of his 
brother, Edward the Fourth, and to prepare the 
way for this, he wished first, by every means, to 
cast odium on Edward's character. This was 
easily done, for Edward's character was bad 
enough to merit any degree of odium which his 
brother might wish it to bear. 



Pkoclaimed King. 261 

Richard's determination in respect to Jane Sliorc. 

Accordingly, Kichard employed liis fiicnds 
and partisans in talking as much as possible in 
all quarters about the dissoluteness and the 
vices of the late king. False stories woula 
probably have been invented, if it had not been 
that there were enough that were true. These 
stories were all revived and put in circulation, 
and every thing was made to appear as unfa- 
vorable for Edward as possible. Eichard him- 
self, on the other hand, feigned a very strict and 
scrupulous regard for virtue and morality, and 
deemed it his duty, he said, to do all in his pow- 
er to atone for and wipe away the reproach 
which his brother's loose and wicked life had 
left upon the court and the kingdom. Among 
other things, the cause of public morals demand- 
ed, he said, that an example should be made of 
Jane Shore, who had been the associate and 
partner of the king in his unmoralities. 

Jane Shore, it will be recollected, was the 
wife of a rich citizen of London, whom Edward 
had enticed away from her husband and brought 
to court. She was naturally a very amiable 
and kind-hearted woman, and all accounts con- 
cur in saying that she exercised the power that 
she acquired over the mind of the king in a 
very humane and praiseworthy manner. She 
was always ready to interpose, when the king 



262 King Kichakd III. 

Jane's chai'acter. Her jev/elry confiscated. 

contemplated any act of liarsliness or severity, 
to avert liis anger and save his intended victim, 
and, in general, she did a great deal to soften 
the brutality of his character, and to protect the 
innocent and helpless from the wrongs which 
he would otherwise have often done them. 
These amiable and gentle traits of character do 
not, indeed, atone at all for the grievous sin 
which she committed in abandoning her hus- 
band and living voluntarily with the king, but 
they did much toward modifying the feeling of 
scorn and contempt with which she would have 
otherwise been regarded by the people of En- 
gland. 

Eichard caused Jane to be arrested and sent 
to prison. He also seized all her plate and jew- 
els, and confiscated them. She had a very rich 
and valuable collection of these things.* Eich- 
ard then caused an ecclesiastical court to be or- 
ganized, and sent her before it to be tried. The 
court, undoubtedly in accordance with instruc- 
tions that Eichard himself gave them, sentenced 
her, by way of penance for her sins, to walk in 
midday through the streets of London, from 
one end of the city to the other, almost entirely . 

* The husband with whom she had lived before she be- 
came acquainted with Edward was a wealthy goldsmith 
iind jeweler. 



Proclaimed King. 263 

The punishment of Jane Shore. 

undressed. The intention of this severe expo- 
sure was to designate her to those who should 
assemble to witness the punishment as a wan- 
ton, and thus to put her to shame, and draw 
upon her the scorn and derision of the popu^ 
lace. They found some old and obsolete law 
which authorized such a punishment. The 
sentence was carried into effect on a Sunday. 
The unhappy criminal was conducted through 
the principal streets of the city, wearing a night- 
dress, and carrying a lighted taper in her hand, 
between rows of spectators that assembled by 
thousands along the way to witness the scene. 
But, instead of being disposed to receive her 
with taunts and reproaches, the populace were 
moved to compassion by her saddened look and 
her extreme beauty. Their hearts were soft- 
ened by the remembrance of the many stories 
they had heard of the kindness of her heart, 
and the amiableness and gentleness of her de- 
meanor, in the time of her prosperity and pow- 
er. They thought it hard, too, that the law 
should be enforced so rigidly against her alone, 
while so many multitudes in all ranks of soci- 
ety, high as well as low, were allowed to go 
unpu.nished. 

Still, Eichard's object in this exhibition was 
accomplished. The transaction had the effect 



264 King Eichakd III. [A.D.1483. 

Alleged marriage of Edward IV. to Elinor Talbot. 

of calling the attention of the public universal- 
ly and strongly to the fact that Edward the 
Fourth had been a loose and dissolute man, and 
prepared people's minds for the charge which 
was about to be brought against him. 

This charge was that he had been secretly 
married to another lady before his union with 
Elizabeth Woodville, and that consequently by 
this latter marriage he was guilty of bigamy. 
Of course, if this were true, the second marriage 
would be null and void, and the children spring- 
ing from it would have no rights as heirs. 

Whether there was any truth in this story or 
not can not now ever be certainly known. All 
that is certain is that Bichard circulated the re- 
port, and he found several witnesses to testify 
to the truth of it. The maiden name of the 
lady to whom they said the king had been mar- 
ried was Elinor Talbot. She had married in 
early life a certain Lord Boteler, whose widow 
she was at the time that Edward was alleged 
to have married her. The marriage was per- 
formed in a very private manner by a certain 
bishop, nobody being present besides the par-^ 
ties except the bishop himself, and he was 
strictly charged by the king to keep the affair 
a profound secret. This he promised to do. 
Notwithstanding his promise, however, the bish- 



Proclaimed King. 205 

Particulars of the story. Hau for publishing it. 

op some time subsequently, after the king had 
been married to Ehzabeth Woodville, revealed 
I the secret of the previous marriage to Glouces- 
ter, at which the king, when he heard of it, was 
extremely angry. He accused the bishop of 
having betrayed the trust which he had reposed 
in him, and, dismissing him at once from office, 
shut him up in prison. 

Eichard having, as he said, kept these facts 
secret during his brother's lifetime, out of re- 
gard for the peace of the family, now felt it his 
duty to make them known, in order to prevent 
the wrong which would be done by allowing 
the crown to descend to a son who, not being 
born in lawful wedlock, could have no rights 
as heir. 

After disseminating this story among the in- 
fluential persons connected with the court, and 
through all the circles of high life, during the 
week, it was arranged that on the following 
Sunday the facts should be made known pub- 
licly to the people. 

There was a large open space near St. Paul's 
Cathedral, in the very heart of London, where 
it was the custom to hold public assemblies of 
all kinds, both religious and political. There 
was a pulpit built on one side of this space, 
from which sermons were preached, orations 



266 King Richakd III. 

Sermon preached by Dr. Shaw near St. Paul's. 

and harangues pronounced, and proclamations 
made. Oaths were administered here too, in 
cases where it was required to administer oaths 
to large numbers of people. 

From this pulpit, on the next Sunday after 
the penance of Jane Shore, a certain Dr. Shaw, 
who was a brother of the Lord-mayor of Lon- 
don, preached a sermon to a large concourse of 
citizens, in which he openly attempted to set 
aside the claims of the two boys, and to prove 
that Richard was the true heir to the crown. 

He took for his text a passage from the Wis- 
dom of Solomon, " The multiplying brood of 
the ungodly shall not thrive." In this discourse 
he explained to his audience that Edward, 
when he was married to Elizabeth Woodville, 
was already the husband of Elinor Boteler, and 
consequently that the second marriage was il- 
legal and void, and the children of it entirely 
destitute of all claims to the crown. He also, 
it is said, advanced the idea that neither Ed- 
ward nor Clarence were the children of their 
reputed father, the old Duke of York, but that 
Richard was the oldest legitimate son of the 
marriage, in proof of which he offered the fact 
that Richard strongly resembled the duke in 
person, while neither Edward nor Clarence had 
borne any resemblance to him at all. 



Proclaimed King. 267 

Ingenious contrivance. Coolness of the people. 

It was arranged, moreover — so it was said — 
that, when the preacher came to the passage 
where he was to speak of the resemblance 
which Eichard bore to his father, the great Duke 
of York, Richard himself was to enter the as- 
sembly as if by accident, and thus give the 
preacher the opportunity to illustrate and con- 
firm what he had said by directing his au- 
dience to observe for themselves the resem- 
blance which he had pointed out, and also to 
excite them to a burst of enthusiasm in Rich- 
ard's favor by the eloqiient appeal which the 
incident of Richard's entrance was to awaken. 
But this intended piece of stage effect, if it was 
really planned, failed in the execution. Rich- 
ard did not come in at the right time, and when 
he did come in, either the preacher managed 
the case badly, or else the people were very lit- 
tle disposed to espouse Richard's cause; for 
when the orator, at the close of his appeal, ex- 
pected applause and acclamations, the people 
uttered no response, but looked at each other in 
silence, and remained wholly unmoved. 

In the course of the following two or three 
days, other attempts were made to excite the 
populace to some demonstration in Richard's 
favor, but they did not succeed. The Duke of 
Buckingham met a large concourse of London- 



268 King Eichard III. 

Meeting at the Guildhall. The people do not respond. 

ers at the Guildhall, which is in the centre of 
the business portion of the city. He was sup- 
ported by a number of nobles, knights, and dis- 
tinguished citizens, and he made a long and 
able speech to the assembly, in which he argued 
strenuously in favor of calling Eichard to the 
throne. He denounced the character of the for- 
mer king, and enlarged at length on the dissi- 
pated and vicious life which he had led. He 
also related to the people the story of Edward's 
having been the husband of Lady Elinor Boteler 
at the time when his marriage with Queen Eliz- 
abeth took place, which fact, as Buckingham 
showed, made the marriage with Elizabeth 
void, and cut off the children from the inherit- 
ance. The children of Clarence had been cut 
off, too, by the attainder, and so Eichard was the 
only remaining heir. 

The duke concluded his harangue by asking 
the assembly if, under those circumstances, they 
would not call upon Eichard to ascend the 
throne. A few of the poorer sort, very likely 
some that had been previously hired to do it, 
threw up their caps into the air in response to 
this appeal, and cried out, "Long live King 
Eichard!" But the major part, comprising all 
the more respectable portion of the assembly, 
looked grave and were silent. Some who were 



Pkoclaimed King. 269 

The appeals to the people fail. Grand council convened. 

pressed to give their opinion said they must 
take time to consider. 

Thus these appeals to the people failed, so far 
as the object of them was to call forth a popu- 
lar demonstration in Eichard's favor. But in 
one respect they accomplished the object in 
view : they had the effect of making it known 
throughout London and the vicinity that a rev- 
olution was impending, and thus preparing 
men's minds to acquiesce in the change more 
readily than they might perhaps have done if 
it had come upon them suddenly and with a 
shock. 

On the following day after the address at the 
Guildhall, a grand assembly of all the lords, 
bishops, councilors, and officers of state was con- 
vened in Westminster. It was substantially a 
Parliament, though not a Parliament in form. 
The reason why it was not called as a Parliament 
in form was because Eichard, having doubts, as 
he said, about the right of Edward to the throne, 
could not conscientiously advise that any pub- 
lic act should be performed in his name, and a 
Parliament could only be legally convened by 
summons from a king. According!}^, this as- 
sembly was only an informal meeting of the 
peers of England and olh?r great dignitaries 
of Churcli and State, with a view of consulting 



270 King Eichard III. [A.D.1483. 

Arrangements made by Buckingham. The petition. 

together to determine wliat should be done. 
Of coiirse, it was all fully arranged and settled 
beforehand, among those who were in Eichard's 
confidence, what the result of these delibera- 
tions was to be. The Duke of Buckingham, 
Eichard's principal friend and supporter, man- 
aged the business at the meeting. The assem- 
bly consisted, of course, chiefly of the party of 
Eichard's friends. The principal leaders of the 
parties opposed to him had been beheaded or 
shut up in prison ; of the rest, some had fled, 
some had concealed themselves, and of the few 
who dared to show themselves at the meeting, 
there were none who had the courage, or per- 
haps I ought rather to say the imprudence and 
folly, to oppose any thing which Buckingham 
should undertake to do. 

The result of the deliberations of this council 
was the drawing up of a petition to be present- 
ed to Eichard, declaring him the true and right- 
ful heir to the crown, and praying him to as- 
sume at once the sovereign power. 

A delegation was appointed to wait upon 
Eichard and present the petition to him. Buck- 
ingham was at the head of this delegation. The 
petition was written out in due form upon a roll 
of parchment. It declared that, inasmuch as it 
was clearly established that King Edward the 



A.D.1483.] Pkoclaimed King. 271 

Substance of the petition. Eeal object of it. 

Fourth was already the husband of "Dame Ah- 
onora Boteler," b}^ a previous marriage, at the 
time of his pretended marriage with Elizabeth 
Woodville, and that consequently his children 
by Elizabeth Woodville, not being born in law- 
ful wedlock, could have no rights of inheritance 
whatever from their father, and especially could 
by no means derive from him any title to the 
crown ; and inasmuch as the children of Clar- 
ence had been cut off from the succession by 
the bill of attainder which had been passed 
against their father ; and inasmuch as Eichard 
came next in order to these in the line of suc- 
cession, therefore he was now the true and 
rightful heir. This his right moreover by birth 
was now confirmed by the decision of the es- 
tates of the realm assembled for the purpose ; 
wherefore the petition, in conclusion, invited 
and urged him at once to assume the crown 
which was thus his by a double title — the right 
of birth and the election of the three estates of 
the realm. 

Of course, although the petition was address- 
ed to Eichard as if the object of it was to pro- 
duce an effect upon his mind, it was really all 
planned and arranged by Eichard himself, and 
by Buckingham in conjunction with him ; and 
the representations and arguments which it 



272 KlNCx ElGHARD III. 

liichard receives the petition at Baynard's Castle. 

contained were designed solely for effect on tlie 
mind of the public, wlien the details of tlie 
transaction should be promulgated throughout 
the land. 

The petition being ready, Buckingham, in be- 
half of the delegation, demanded an audience 
of the Lord Protector that they might lay it 
before him. Kichard accordingly made an ap- 
pointment to receive them at his mother's res- 
idence at Baynard's Castle. 

At the appointed time the delegation appear- 
ed, and were received in great state by Eichard 
in the audience hall. The Duke of Bucking- 
ham presented the petition, and Eichard read 
it. He seemed surprised, and he pretended to 
be at a loss what to reply. Presently he began 
to say that he could not think of assuming the 
crown. He said he had no ambition to reign, 
but only desired to preserve the kingdom for 
his nephew the king until he should become 
of sufficient age, and then to put him peaceably 
in possession of it. But the Duke of Bucking- 
ham replied that this could never be. The peo- 
ple of England, he said, would never consent to 
be ruled by a prince of illegitimate birth. 

" And if you, my lord," added the duke, " re- 
fuse to accept the crown, they know where to 
find another who will gladly accept it." 



Proclaimed King. 275 

Eichard concludes to accept the crown. 

In tlie end, Eichard allowed himself to be 
persuaded that there was no alternative but for 
him to accept the crown, and he reluctantly 
consented that, on the morrow, he would pro- 
ceed in state to Westminster, and publicly as- 
sume the title and the prerogatives of king. 

Accordingly, the next day, a grand proces- 
sion was formed, and Eichard was conducted 
with great pomp to Westminster Hall. Here 
he took his place on the throne, with the lead- 
ing lords of his future court, and the bishops 
and archbishops around him. The rest of the 
hall was crowded with a vast concourse of peo- 
ple that had assembled to witness the ceremony. 

First the king took the customary royal oath, 
which was administered by the archbishop. 
He then summoned the great judges before 
him, and made an address to them, exhorting 
them to administer the laws and execute judg- 
ment between man and man in a just and im- 
partial manner, inasmuch as to secure that end, 
he said, would be the first and greatest object 
of his reign. 

After this Eichard addressed the concourse 
of people in the hall, who, in some sense, repre- 
sented the public, and pronounced a pardon for 
all offenses which had been committed against 
himself, and ordered a proclamation to be made 



276 



King Eichaed III. 



Ceremonies connected with the investiture of the king. 

of a general amnesty throngliout the land. 
These annoimcements were received by the 
people with loud acclamations, and the ceremo- 
ny was concluded by shouts of "Long live 
King Eichard 1" from all the assembly. 

We obtain a good idea of this scene by the 
following engraving, which is copied exactly 
from a picture contained in a manuscript vol- 
ume of the time. 









IHIf 










^P 




^K 


io 






i 


9 


m 




iiiBt^!xffl 


m 


i^l ll^^^^rjl^ra 








Mm 








^^llilli 


iiilnl 





THE KING ON HIS THRONE. 



The royal dignity having thus been assumed 
by the new king at the usual centre and seat 



A.D.1483.] Pkocl AIMED King. 277 

Richard marches through London. Is every where proclaimed king. 

of the royal power, the procession was again 
formed, and Eichard was conducted to West- 
minster Abbey for the purpose of doing the 
homage customary on such occasions at one of 
the shrines in the church. The procession of 
the king was met at the door, of the church by 
a procession of monks chanting a solemn an- 
them as they came. 

After the religious ceremonies were com- 
pleted, Eichard, at the head of a grand caval- 
cade of knights, noblemen, and citizens, pro- 
ceeded into the city to the Church of St. Paul. 
The streets were lined with spectators, who sa- 
luted the king with cheers and acclamations as 
he passed. At the Church of St. Paul more 
ceremonies were performed and more procla- 
mations were made. The popular joy, more or 
less sincere, was expressed by the sou.nding of 
trumpets, the waving of banners, and loud ac- 
clamations of " Long live King Eichard !" At 
length, when the services in the city were con- 
cluded, the king returned to Westminster, and 
took up his abode at the royal palace ; and while 
he was returning, heralds were sent to all the 
great centres of concourse and intelligence in 
and around London to proclaim him king. 

This proclamation of Eichard as king took 
place on the twenty-sixth of June. King Ed- 



278 King Eichard III. [A.D. 1483. 

Extraordinary character of the reiga of Edward V. 

ward the Fourth died just about three months 
before. During this three months Edward the 
Fifth is, in theory, considered as having been 
the King of England, though, during the whole 
period, the poor child, instead of exercising any 
kingly rights or prerogatives, was a helpless 
prisoner in the hands of others, who, while they 
professed to be his protectors, were really his 
determined and relentless foes. 



A.D.1483.] The Coronation. 279 

Plan for the coronation. Anne ia sent for, and comes to London. 



Chapter XIY. 
The Coronation. 

IT was on the 26tli of June, 1483, that Eich- 
ard was proclaimed king, under the circum- 
stances narrated in the last chapter. In order 
to render his investiture with the royal author- 
ity complete, he resolved that the ceremony of 
coronation should be immediately performed. 
He accordingly appointed the 6th of July for 
the day. This allowed an interval of just ten 
days for the necessary preparations. 

The first thing to be done was to send to 
Middleham Castle for Anne, his wife, who 
now, since the proclamation of Eichard, became 
Queen of England. Eichard wished that she 
should be present, and take part in the cere- 
mony of the coronation. The child was to be 
brought too. His name was Edward. 

It seems that Anne arrived in London only 
on the 8d of July, three days before the ap- 
pointed day. There is a specification in the 
book of accounts of some very elegant and 
costly cloth of gold bought on that day in Lon- 
don, the material for the queen's coronation robe. 



280 King Richard III. 

Procession of barges. Great crowds of spectators. The royal barges. 

Richard determined that the ceremony of his 
coronation should be more, magnificent than 
that of any previous Enghsh monarch. Prep- 
arations were made, accordingly, on a very 
grand scale. There were several preliminary 
pageants and processions on the days preceding 
that of the grand ceremony. 

On the 4th of July, which was Sunday, the 
king and queen proceeded in state to the Tow- 
er. They went in barges on the river. The 
party set out from Baynard's Castle, the resi- 
dence of Richard's mother, and the place where 
the queen went on her arrival in London. 

The royal barges destined to convey the 
king and queen, and the other great personages 
of the party, were covered with canopies of 
silk, and were otherwise magnificently adorned. 
Great crowds of spectators assembled to wit- 
ness the scene. Some came in boats upon the 
water, others took their stations on the shores, 
where every prominent and commanding point 
was covered with its own special crowd, and 
others still occupied the windows of the build- 
ings that looked out upon the river. 

Through the midst of this scene the royal 
barges passed down the river to the Tower. 
As they moved along, the air was filled with 
prolonged and continual shouts of "Long live 



The Coronation.' 281 

Arrival at the Tower. Measures adopted. 

King Eicliarcl!" "Long live the noble Queen 
Anne!" 

Eoyal or imperial power, once firmly estab- 
lished, will never fail to draw forth the accla- 
mations of the crowd, no matter by what means 
it has been acquired. 

On his arrival at the Tower, Eichard was 
received wdth great honor by the authorities 
which he had left in charge there, and he took 
possession of the edifice formally, as one of his 
own royal residences. He held a court iiT the 
great council-hall. At this court he created 
several persons peers of the realm, and invest- 
ed others with the honor of knighthood. These 
were men whom he supposed to be somewhat 
undecided in respect to the course which they 
should pursue, and he washed, by these compli- 
ments and honors, to purchase their adhesion 
to his cause. 

He also liberated some persons who had been 
made prisoners, presuming that, by this kind- 
ness, he should conciliate their good- will. 

He did not, however, by any means extend 
this conciliating policy to the case of the young 
ex-king and his brother ; indeed, it would have 
been extremely dangerous for him to have done 
so. He was aware that there must be a large 
number of persons throughout the kingdom 



282 King Eichard III. 

1 he princes imprisoned. Eichard and Anne proceed to Westminster. 

who Still considered Edward as the rightful 
king, and he knew very well that, if any of 
these were to obtain possession of Edward's 
person, it would enable them to act vigorously 
in his name, and to organize perhaps a pow- 
erful party for the support of his claims. He 
was convinced, therefore, that it was essential 
to the success of his plans that the boys should 
be kept in very close and safe custody. So he 
removed them from the apartments which they 
had hitherto occupied, and shut them up in 
close confinement in a gloomy tower upon the 
outer walls of the fortress, and which, on ac- 
count of the cruel murders which were from 
time to time committed there, subsequently ac- 
quired the name of the Bloody Tower. 

Eichard and the queen remained at the Tow 
er until the day appointed for the coronation, 
which was Tuesday. The ceremonies of that 
day were commenced by a grand progress of 
the king and his suite through the city of Lon- 
don back to Westminster, only, as if to vary 
the pageantry, they went back in grand caval- 
cade through the streets of the city, instead of 
returning as they came, by barges on the river. 
The concourse of spectators on this occasion 
was even greater than before. The streets were 
every where thronged, and very strict regula- 













r-^s^c^ai 




THE BLOODY T0WTE2J. 



The Coronation. 285 



Ceremonies connected with the coronation. The royal paraphernalia. 

tions were made, hj Richard's command, to j)re- 
vent disorder. 

On arriving at "Westminster, tlie royal party 
proceeded to the Abbey, where, first of all, as 
was usual in the case of a coronation, certain 
ceremonies of religious homage were to be per- 
formed at a particular shrine, which was re- 
garded as an object of special sanctity on such 
occasions. The king and queen proceeded to 
this shrine from the great hall, barefooted, in 
token of reverence and humility. They walk- 
ed, however, it should be added, on ornamented 
cloth laid down for this purpose on the stone 
pavements of the floors. All the knights and 
nobles of England that were present accom- 
panied and followed the king and queen in 
their pilgrimage to the shrine. 

One of these nobles bore the king's crown, 
another the queen's crown, and others still va- 
rious other ancient national emblems of royal 
power. The queen walked under a canopy of 
silk, with a golden bell hanging from each of 
the corners of it. The canopy was borne by 
four great of&cers of state, and the bells, of 
course, jingled as the bearers walked along. 

The queen wore upon her head a circlet of 
gold adorned with precious stones. There were 
four bishops, one at each of the four corners of 



286 King Eichard III. 

Religious services. Tlie king and queen crowned. The dais. 

the canopy, wlio walked as immediate attend- 
ants upon the queen, and a ladj of the very 
highest rank followed her, bearing her train. 

When the procession reached the shrine, the 
king and queen took their seats on each side 
of the high altar, and then there came forth a 
procession of priests and bishops, clothed in 
magnificent sacerdotal robes made of cloth of 
gold, and chanting solemn hymns of prayer and 
praise as they came. 

After the religious services were completed, 
the ceremony of anointing and crowning the 
king and queen, and of investing their persons 
with the royal robes and emblems, was per- 
formed with the usual grand and imposing so- 
lemnities. After this, the royal cortege was 
formed again, and the company returned to 
Westminster Hall in the same order as they 
came. The queen walked, as before, under her 
silken canopy, the golden bells keeping time, 
by their tinkling, with the steps of the bear- 
ers. 

At Westminster Hall a great dais had been 
erected, with thrones upon it for the king and 
queen. As their maj esties advanced and ascend- 
ed -this dais, surrounded by the higher nobles 
and chief officers of state, the remainder of the 
procession, consisting of those who had come to 



The Coronation. 287 

Ceremonies in Westminster Ilall. The banquet. 



accompany and escort them to the place, fol- 
lowed, and filled the hall. 

As soon as this vast throng saw that the 
king and queen were seated upon the dais, 
with their special and immediate attendants 
around them, their duties were ended, and they 
were to be dismissed. A grand officer of state, 
whose duty it was to dismiss them, came in on 
horseback, his horse covered with cloth of gold 
hanging down on both sides to the ground. 
The people, falling back before this horse- 
man, gradually retired, and thus the hall was 
cleared. 

The king and queen then rose from their 
seats upon the dais, and were conducted to their 
private apartments in the palace, to rest and re- 
fresh themselves after the fatigues of the public 
ceremony, and to prepare for the grand banquet 
which was to take place in the evening. 

The preparations for this banquet were made 
by spreading a table upon the dais under the 
canopy for the king and queen, and four other 
very large and long tables through the hall for 
the invited guests. 

The time appointed for the banquet was four 
o'clock. When the hour arrived, the king 
and queen were conducted into the hall again, 
and took their places at the table which had 



288 King Eichard III. 

The royal champiou. Grand challenge. 

been prepared for them on the dais. They had 
changed their dresses, having laid aside their 
royal robes, and the various paraphernalia of 
office with which they had been indued at 
the coronation, and now appeared in robes of 
crimson velvet embroidered with gold, and 
trimmed with costly furs. They were attended 
by many lords and ladies of the highest rank, 
scarcely less magnificently dressed than them.- 
selves. They were waited upon, while at table, 
by the noblest persons in the realm, who served 
them from the most richly wrought vessels of 
gold and silver. 

After the first part of the banquet was over, 
a knight, fully armed, and mounted on a war- 
horse richly caparisoned, rode into the hall, 
having been previously announced by a herald. 
This was the king's champion, who came, ac- 
cording to a custom usually observed on such 
occasions, to challenge and defy the king's ene- 
mies, if any such there were.* 

The trappings of the champion's horse were 
of white and red silk, and the armor of the 
knight himself was bright and glittering. As 
he rode forward into the area in front of the 
dais, he called out, in a loud voice, demanding 
of all present if there were any one there who 

* See Frontispiece. 



The Coronation. 289 

The spectators. Gauntlet thrown down. A largesse. 

disputed the claim of King Kichard the Third 
to the crown of England. 

All the people gazed earnestly at the cham- 
pion while he made this demand, but no one 
responded. 

The champion then made proclamation again, 
that if any one there was who would come for- 
ward and say that King Eichard was not law- 
fully King of England, he was ready there to 
fight him to the death, in vindication of Eich- 
ard's right. As he said this, he threw down 
his gauntlet upon the floor, in token of defi- 
ance. 

At this, the whole assembly, with one voice, 
began to shout, "Long live King Eichard!" 
-and the immense hall was filled, for some min- 
utes, with thundering acclamations. 

This ceremony being concluded, a company 
of heralds came forward before the king, and 
proclaimed " a largesse," as it was called. The 
ceremony of a largesse consisted in throwing 
money among the crowd to be scrambled for. 
Three times the money was thrown out, on this 
occasion, among the guests in the hall. The 
amount that is charged on the royal account- 
book for the expense of this largesse is one 
hundred pounds. 

The scrambling of a crowd for money thrown 
T 



290 KiKG KiCHARD III. 

Modern largesses. The torches, 

thus among them, one would say, was a very 
rude and boisterous amusement, but those were 
rude and boisterous times. The custom holds 
its ground in England, in some measure, to the 
present day, though now it is confined to throw- 
ing out pence and halfpence to the rabble in 
the streets at an election, and is no longer, as 
of yore, relied upon as a means of entertaining 
noble guests at a royal dinner. 

After the frolic of the largesse was over, the 
king and queen rose to depart. The evening 
was now coming on, and a great number of 
torches were brought in to illuminate the hall. 
By the light of these torches, the company, aft- 
er their majesties had retired, gradually with- 
drew, and the ceremonies of the coronation were 
ended. 



The Fate of the Princes. 291 

The king resolves on a grand progress througli the kmgdom. Oxford. 



Chapter XY. 
The Fate of the Princes. 

AFTER tlie coronation, King Richard and 
Anne, the queen, went to Windsor, and 
took np their residence there, with the court, 
for a short time, in order that Richard might 
attend to the most important of the preliminary 
arrangements for the management of pubhc af- 
fairs, which are always necessary at the com- 
mencement of a new reign. As soon as these 
things were settled, the king set out to make a 
grand progress through his dominions, for the 
purpose of receiving the congratulations of the 
people, and also of impressing them, as much as 
possible, with a sense of his grandeur and pow- 
er by the magnificence of his retinue, and the 
great parades and celebrations by which his 
progress through the country was to be accom- 
panied. 

From Windsor Castle the king went first to 
Oxford, where he was received with distin- 
guished honors by all the great dignitaries con- 
nected with the University. Hence he proceed- 
ed to Gloucester, and afterward to Worcester. 



292 KiKG KiCHARD III. 

state of public sentiment. "Warwick Castle. 

At all these places lie was received with great 
parade and pageantry. Those who were dis- 
posed to espouse his cause, of course, endeav- 
ored to gain his favor by doing all in their pow- 
er to give eclat to these celebrations. Those 
who were indifferent or in doubt, flocked, of 
course, to see the shows, and thus involuntarily 
contributed to the apparent popularity of the 
demonstrations ; while, on the other hand, 
those who were opposed to him, and adhered 
still secretly to the cause of young King Ed- 
ward, made no open opposition, but expressed 
their dissent, if they expressed it at all, in pri- 
vate conclaves of their own. They could not 
do otherwise than to allow Kichard to have his 
own way during the hour of his triumph, their 
hour being not yet come. 

At last, Richard, in his progress, reached 
Warwick Castle, and here he was joined by the 
queen and the young prince, who had remained 
at Windsor while the king was making his tour 
through the western towns, but who now came 
across the country with a grand retinue of her 
own, to join her husband at her own former 
home ; for Warwick Castle was the chief strong- 
hold and principal residence of the great Earl 
of Warwick, the queen's father. The king and- 
queen remained for some time at Warwick 



The Fate of the Princes. 293 

Embassadors. Arrival at York. 

Castle, and the king established his court here, 
and maintained it ^vith great pomp and splen- 
dor. Here he received embassadors from Spain, 
France, and Burgundy, who had been sent by 
their several governments to congratulate him 
on his accession, and to pay him their homage. 
Each of these embassadors came in great state, 
and were accompanied by a grand retinue ; and 
the ceremonies of receiving them, and the en- 
tertainments given to do them honor, were mag- 
nificent beyond description. 

One of these embassadors, the one sent by 
the government of Spain, brought a formal pro- 
posal from Ferdinand and Isabella for a mar- 
riage between their daughter and Richard's lit- 
tle son. The little prince was at that time 
about seven years of age. 

After remaining some time at Warwick Cas- 
tle, the royal party proceeded northward, and, 
after passing through several large towns, they 
arrived finally at York, which was then, in 
some sense, the northern capital of the king- 
dom. Here there was another grand reception. 
All the nobility and gentry of the surrounding 
country came in to honor the king's arrival, 
and the ceremonies attending the entrance of 
the royal cortege were extremely magnificent. 

While the court was at York, Riclxard re- 



294 King Eichard III. 

The coronation repeated. Richard's son. Celehrations and rejoicings, 

peated the ceremony of the coronation. On this 
-occasion, his son, the little Prince Edward, was 
brought forward in a conspicuous manner. He 
was created Prince of Wales with great cere- 
mony, and on the day of the coronation he had 
a little crown upon his head, and his mother led 
him by the hand in the procession to the altar. 

The poor child did not live, however, to 
realize the grand destiny which his father thus 
marked out for him. He died a few months 
after this at Middleham Castle. 

The coronation at York was attended and 
followed, as that at London had been, with ban- 
quets and public parades, and grand celebra- 
tions of all sorts, which continued for several 
successive days, and the hilarity and joy which 
these shows awakened among the crowds that 
assembled to witness them seemed to indicate 
a universal acquiescence on the part of the peo- 
ple of England in Eichard's accession to the 
throne. 

Still, although outwardly every thing looked 
fair, Eichard's mind was not yet by any means 
at ease. From the very day of his accession, 
he knew well that, so long as the children 
pf his brother Edward remained alive at the 
Tower, his seat on the throne could not be se- 
cure. There must necessarily be, he was well 



The Fate of the Princes. 295 

His determination in respect to the children. His agent Green. 

aware, a large party in the kingdom who were 
secretly in favor of Edward, and he knew that 
they would very soon begin to come to an un- 
derstanding with each other, and to form plans 
for effecting a counter-revolution. The most 
certain means of preventing the formation of 
these plots, or of defeating them, if formed, 
would be to remove the children out of the 
way. He accordingly determined in his heart, 
before he left London, that this should be done.* 

He resolved to put them to death. The 
deed was to be performed during the course of 
his royal progress to the north, while the minds 
of the people of England were engrossed with 
the splendor of the pageantry with which his 
progress was accompanied. He intended, more- 
over, that the murder should be effected in a 
very secret manner, and that the death of the 
boys should be closely concealed until a time 
and occasion should arrive rendering it neces- 
sary that it should be made public. 

Accordingly, soon after he left London, he 
sent back a confidential agent, named Green, to 

* I say he determined ; for, although some of Richard's 
defenders have denied that he was guilty of the crime which 
the almost unanimous voice of history charges upon him, the 
evidence leaves very little room to doubt that the dreadful 
tale is in all essential particulars entirely true. 



296 King Eichaed III. 

Green's return. Conversation with the page. &ir James Tyrrcl. 

Sir Kobert Brakenbury, the governor of the 
Tower, with, a letter, in which Sir Kobert was 
commanded to put the boys to death. 

Grreen immediately repaired to London to 
execute the commission. Kichard proceeded 
on his journey. When he arrived at Warwick, 
Green returned and joined him there, bringing 
back the report that Sir Kobert refused to obey 
the order. 

Richard was very angry when Grreen deliv- 
ered this message. He turned to a page who 
was in waiting upon him in his chamber, and 
said, in a rage, 

'' Even these men that I have brought up 
and made, refuse to obey my commands." 

The page replied, 

" Please your majesty, there is a man here in 
the ante-chamber, that I know, who will obey 
your majesty's commands, whatever they may 
be." 

Kichard asked the page who it was that he 
meant, and he said Sir James Tyrrel. Sir 
James Tyrrel was a very talented and accom- 
plished, but very unscrupulous man, and he 
was quite anxious to acquire the favor of the 
king. The page knew this, from conversation 
which Sir James had had with him, and he had 
been watching an opportunity to recommend 



The Fate of the Princes. 297 

Kichard employs Tyrrel. The letter. Tyrrel arrives at the Tower. 

Sir James to Eichard's notice, according to an 
arrangement that Sir James liad made with 
him. 

So Eichard ordered that Sir James should 
be sent in. When he came, Eichard held a 
private conference with him, in which he com- 
municated to him, by means of dark hints and 
insinuations, what he required. Tj^rrel under- 
took to execute the deed. So Eichard gave 
him a letter to Sir Eobert Brakenbury, in which 
he ordered Sir Eobert to deliver up the keys 
of the Tower to Sir James, " to the end," as the 
letter expressed it, "that he might there ac- 
complish the king's pleasure in such a thing as 
he had given him commandment." 

Sir James, having received this letter, pro- 
ceeded to London, taking with him such per- 
sons as he thought he might require to aid him 
in his work. Among these was a man named 
John Dighton. John Dighton was Sir James's 
groom. He was " a big, broad, square, strong 
knave," and ready to commit any crime or deed 
of violence which his master might require. 

On arriving at the Tower, Sir James deliver- 
ed his letter to the governor, and the governor 
gave him up the keys. Sir James went to see 
the keepers of the prison in which the boys 
were confined. There were four of them. He 



298 King Eichaed III. 

Murder of the princes. Action of the assassins. 

selected from among tliese four, one, a man 
named Miles Forest, wliom lie concluded to 
employ, together with his groom, John Dighton, 
to kill the princes. He formed the plan, gave 
the men their instructions, and arranged it with 
them that they were to carry the deed into ex- 
ecution that night. 

Accordingly, at midnight, when the princes 
were asleep, the two men stole softly into the 
room, and there wrapped the poor boys up sud- 
denly in the bed-clothes, with pillows pressed 
down hard over their faces, so that they could 
not breathe. The boys, of course, were sud- 
denly awakened, in terror, and struggled to get 
free; but the men held them down, and kept 
the pillows and bed-clothes pressed so closely 
over their faces that they could not breathe or 
utter any cry. They held them in this way 
until they were entirely suffocated. 

When they found that their struggles had 
ceased, they slowly opened the bed-clothes and 
lifted up the pillows to see if their victims were 
really dead. 

"Yes," said they to each other, "they are 
dead." 

The murderers took off the clothes which the 
princes had on, and laid out the bodies upon the 
bed. They then went to call Sir James Tyrrel, 



The Fate of the Princes. 299 

The burial. Joy of Richard. Ee-interment of the bodies. 

who was all ready, in an apartment not far oif, 
awaiting tlie summons. He came at once, and, 
when he saw that the boys were really dead, he 
gave orders that the men should take the bodies 
■down into the court-yard to be buried. 

The grave was dug immediately, just outside 
the door, at the foot of the stairs which led up 
to the turret in which the boys had been con- 
fined. When the bodies had been placed in 
the ground, the grave was filled up, and some 
stones were put upon the top of it. 

Immediately after this work had been accom- 
plished, Sir James delivered back the keys to 
the governor of the castle, and mounted his 
horse to return to the king. He traveled with 
all possible speed, and, on reaching the place 
where the king then was, he reported what he 
had done. 

The king was extremely pleased, and he re- 
warded Sir James very liberally for his energy 
and zeal ; he, however, expressed some dis- 
satisfaction at the manner in which the bodies 
had been disposed of. '^ They should not have 
been buried," he said, "in so vile a corner." 

So Eichard sent word to the governor of the 
Tower, and the governor commissioned a priest 
to take up the bodies secretly, and inter them 
again in a more suitable manner. This priest 



300 King Richard III. 

Eicliard keeps the murder secret. 

soon afterward died, without revealing the 
place which he chose for the interment, and so 
it was never known where the bodies were 
finally laid. 

Richard gave all the persons who had been 
concerned in this affair very strict instructions 
to keep the death of the princes a profound se- 
cret. He did not intend to make it known, 
unless he should perceive some indication of 
an attempt to restore Edward to the throne ; 
and, had it not been for the occurrence of cer- 
tain circumstances which will be related in the 
next chapter, the fate of the princes might, per- 
haps, have thus been kept secret for many 
years. 



Domestic Troubles. 301 

Plots formed against Richard. Situation of Elizabeth "Woodville. 



Chapter XYI. 
Domestic Troubles. 

WHILE Kicliard was making his trium- 
phal tour through the north of England, 
apparently receiving a confirmation of his right 
to the crown by the voice of the whole popu- 
lation of the country, the leaders of the Lancas- 
ter party were secretly beginning, in London, 
to form their schemes for liberating the young 
princes from the Tower, and restoring Edward 
to the kingdom. 

Queen Elizabeth, who still remained, with 
the Princess Elizabeth, her oldest daughter, and 
some of her other children, in the sanctuary at 
Westminster, was the centre of this movement. 
She commimicated privately with the nobles 
who were disposed to espouse her cause. The 
nobles had secret meetings among themselves 
to form their plans. At these meetings they 
drank to the health of the king in the Tower, 
and of his brother, the little Duke of York, and 
pledged themselves to do every thing in their 
power to restore the king to his throne. They 
little knew that the unhappy princes were at 



302 King Eichard III. [A.D.1483. 

Plans of the conspirators. Queen Elizabeth's agony. 

-that very time lying together in a corner of the 
court-yard of the prison in an ignoble grave. 

At length the conspirators' plans were ma- 
tured, and the insurrection broke out. Eich- 
ard immediatel}^ prepared to leave York, at the 
head of a strong force, to go toward London. 
At the same time, he allowed the tidings to be 
spread abroad that the two princes were dead. 
This news greatly disconcerted the conspirators 
and deranged their plans ; and when the dread- 
ful intelligence was communicated to the queen 
in the sanctuary, she was stunned, and almost 
killed by it, as by a blow. "She swooned away, 
and fell to the ground, where she lay in great 
agony, like a corpse ;" and when at length she 
was restored to consciousness again, she broke 
forth in shrieks and cries of anguish so loud, 
that they resounded through the whole Abbey, 
and were most pitiful to hear. She beat her 
breast and tore her hair, calling all the time to 
her children by their names, and bitterly re- 
proaching herself for her madness in giving up 
the youngest into his enemies' hands. After 
exhausting herself with these cries and lamen- 
tations, she sank into a state of calm despair, 
and, kneeling down upon the floor, she began, 
with dreadful earnestness and solemnity, to call 
upon Almighty God, imploring him to avenge 




QUEEN ELIZMJETH AT THE GEAVE OF HEE CniLDBBS. 



Domestic Troubles. 805 

Retribution. Elizabeth visits the grave. The Duke of Buckingham. 

the death of her children, and invoking the bit- 
terest curses upon the head of their ruthless 
murderer. 

It was but a short time after this that Rich- 
ard's child died at Middleham Castle, as stated 
in the last chapter. Many persons believed 
that this calamity was a judgment of heaven, 
brought upon the king in answer to the be- 
reaved mother's imprecations. 

It is said that when Queen Elizabeth had re- 
covered a little from the first shock of her grief, 
she demanded to be taken to her children's 
grave. So they conducted her to the Tower, 
and showed her the place in the corner of the 
court-yard where they had first been buried. 

One of the principal leaders of the conspiracy 
which had been formed against Richard was 
the Duke of Buckingham^the same that had 
taken so active a part in bringing Richard to 
the throne. What induced him to change sides 
so suddenly is not certainly known. It is sup- 
posed that he was dissatisfied with the rewards 
which Richard bestowed upon him. At any 
rate, he now turned against the king, and be- 
came the leader of the conspirators that were 
plotting against him. 

When the conspirators heard of the death 
of the princes, they were at first at a loss to 
U 



806 King Eichard III. 

Kichmond. Elizabeth. Plans formed for a marriage. 

know what to do. They looked about among 
the branches of the York and Lancaster fami- 
lies for some one to make their candidate for 
the crown. At last they decided upon a cer- 
tain Henry Tudor, Earl of Eichmond. This 
Henry, or Eichmond, as he was generally call- 
ed, was descended indirectly from the Lancas- 
ter line. The proposal of the conspirators, 
however, was, that he should marry the Prin- 
cess Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth Woodville's 
daughter, who has already been mentioned 
among those who fled with their mother to the 
sanctuary. Now that both the sons of Eliza- 
beth were dead, this daughter was, of course. 
King Edward's next heir, and by her mar- 
riage with Eichmond the claims of the houses 
of York and Lancaster would be, in a measure, 
combined. 

When this plan was proposed to Queen 
Elizabeth, she acceded to it at once, and prom- 
ised that she would give her daughter in mar- 
riage to Eichmond, and acknowledge him as 
king, provided he would first conquer and de- 
pose King Eichard, the common enemy. 

The plan was accordingly all arranged. 
Eichmond was in France at this time, having 
fled there some time previous, after a battle, in 
which his party had been defeated. They 



Domestic Troubles. 307 

Eiclimond plans an invasion. Buckingham' s attempt to co-operate. 

wrote to him, explaining the plan. He imme- 
diately fell in with it. He raised a small force 
— all that he could procure at that time — and 
set sail, with a few ships, from the port of St. 
Malo, intending to land on the coast of Devon- 
shire, which is in the southwestern part of En- 
gland. 

In the mean time, the several leaders of the 
rebellion had gone to different parts of the king- 
dom, in order to raise troops, and form centres 
of action against Bichard. Buckingham went 
into Wales. His plan was to march down, 
with all the forces that he could raise there, to 
the coast of Devonshire, to meet Eichmond on 
his landing. 

This Kichard resolved to prevent. He raised 
an army, and marched to intercept Bucking- 
ham. He first, however, issued a proclamation 
in which he denounced the leaders of the rebel- 
lion as criminals and outlaws, and set a price 
upon their heads. 

Buckingham did not succeed in reaching the 
coast in time to join Eichmond. He was stop- 
ped by the Eiver Severn, which you will see, by 
looking on a map of England, came directly in 
his way. He tried to get across the river, but 
the people destroyed the bridges and the boats, 
and he could not get over. He marched up to 



808 King Kichard III. [A.D.1483. 

Failure of the plan. Death of Buckingham. Richmond retreats. 

wliere the stream was small, in hopes of finding 
a fording place, but the waters were so swollen 
with the fall rains that he failed in this attempt 
as well as the others. The result was, that 
Eichard came up while Buckingham was en- 
tangled among the intricacies of the ground 
produced by the inundations. Buckingham's 
soldiers, seeing that they were likely to be sur- 
rounded, abandoned him and fled. At last 
Buckingham fled too, and hid himself; but one 
of his servants came and told Eichard where he 
was. Eichard ordered him to be seized. Buck- 
ingham sent an imploring message to Eichard, 
begging that Eichard would see him, and, be- 
fore condemning him, hear what he had to say ; 
but Eichard, in the place of any reply, gave 
orders to the soldiers to take the prisoner at 
once out into the public square of the town, 
and cut off his head. The order was imme- 
diately obeyed. 

When Eichmond reached the coast of Dev- 
onshire, and found that Buckingham was not 
there to meet him, he was afraid to land with 
the small force that he had under his command, 
and so he sailed back to France. 

Thus the first attempt made to organize a 
forcible resistance to Richard's power totally 
failed. 



Domestic Troubles. 809 

Unhappy situation of Elizabeth. The princess. 

The unhappy queen, when she heard these 
tidings, was once more overwhelmed with grief. 
Her situation in the sanctuary was becoming 
every day more and more painful. She had 
long since exhausted all her own means, and 
she imagined that the monks began to think 
that she was availing herself of their hospi- 
tality too long. Her friends without would 
gladly have supplied her wants, but this Kich- 
ard would not permit. He set a guard around 
the sanctuary, and would not allow any one to 
come or go. He would starve her out, he said, 
if he could not compel her to surrender herself 
in any other way. 

It was, however, not the queen herself, but 
her daughter Elizabeth, who was now the heir 
of whatever claims to the throne were possessed 
by the family, that Bichard was most anxious 
to secure. If he could once get Elizabeth into 
his power, he thought, he could easily devise 
some plan to prevent her marriage with Henry 
of Eichinond, and so defeat the plans of his en- 
emies in the most effectual manner. He would 
have liked still better to have secured Henry 
himself; but Henry was in Brittany, on the oth- 
er side of the Channel, beyond his reach. 

He, however, formed a secret plan to get pos- 
session of Henry. He offered privately a large 



810 King Kichaed III. [A.D.1484. 

He seeks to get possession of Fdchmond. Parliament. New policy. 

reward to the Duke of Brittany if lie would 
seize Henry and deliver him into his, Eichard's 
hands. This the duke engaged to do. But 
Henry gained intelligence of the plot before it 
was executed, and made his escape from Brit- 
tany into France. He was received kindly at 
Paris by the French king. The king even 
promised to aid him in deposing Bichard, and 
making himself King of England instead. This 
alarmed Bichard more than ever. 

In the mean time, the summer passed away 
and the autumn came on. In November Bich- 
ard convened Parliament, and caused very se- 
vere laws to be passed against those who had 
been engaged in the rebellion. Many were ex- 
ecuted under these laws, some were banished, 
and others shut up in prison. Bichard attempt- 
ed, by these and similar measures, to break down 
the spirit of his enemies, and prevent the pos- 
sibility of their forming any new organizations 
against him. Still, notwithstanding all that he 
could do, he felt very ill at ease so long as Hen- 
ry and Elizabeth were at liberty. 

At last, in the course of the winter, he con- 
ceived the idea of trying what pretended kind- 
ness could do in enticing the queen and her 
family out of sanctuary. So he sent a messen- 
ger to her, to make fair and friendly proposals 



A.D.1484.] Domestic Troubles. 311 

The plan succeeds. Excuses for the queen. 

to her in case slie would give up her place of 
refage and place herself under his protection. 
He said that he felt no animosity or ill will 
against her, but that, if she and her daughters 
would trust to him, he would receive them at 
court, provide for them fully in a manner suit- 
ed to their rank, and treat them in all respects 
with the highest consideration. She herself 
8hou.ld be recognized as the queen dowager of 
England, and her daughters as princesses of the 
royal family ; and he would take proper meas- 
ures to arrange marriages for the young ladies, 
such as should comport with the exalted sta- 
tion which they were entitled to hold. 

The queen was at last persuaded to yield to 
these solicitations. She left the sanctuary, and 
gave herself and her daughters up to Eichard's 
control . Many persons have censured her very 
strongly for doing this ; but her friends and de- 
fenders allege that there was nothing else that 
she could do. She might have remained in the 
Abbey herself to starve if she had been alone, 
but she could not see her children perish of 
destitution and distress when a word from her 
could restore them to the world, and raise them' 
at once to a condition of the highest prosperity 
and honor. So she yielded. She left the Ab- 
bey, and was established by Richard in one of 



812 King Kichaed III. 

Her situation still unhappy. The marriage countermanded. 

his palaces, and her daughters were received at 
court, and treated, especially the eldest, with the 
utmost consideration. 

But, notwithstanding this outward change 
in her condition, the real situation of the queen 
herself, after leaving the Abbey, was extreme- 
ly forlorn. The apartments which Kichard as- 
signed to her were very retired and obscure. 
He required her, moreover, to dismiss all her 
own attendants, and he appointed servants and 
agents of his own to wait upon and guard her. 
The queen soon found that she was under a 
very strict surveillance, and not much less a 
prisoner, in fact, than she was before. 

While in this situation, she wrote to her son 
Dorset,* at Paris, commanding him to put an 
end to the proposed marriage of her daughter 
Elizabeth to Henry of Kichmond, " as she had 
given up," she said, ''the plan of that alliance, 
and had formed other designs for the princess." 
Henry and his friends and partisans in Paris 
were indignant at receiving this letter, and the 
queen has been by many persons much blamed 
for having thus broken the engagement which 
she had so solemnly made. Others say that 

* The Earl of Dorset, you will recollect, was Queen Eliz- 
abeth's son by her first marriage ; he, consequently, had no 
claim to the crown. 



Domestic Troubles. 313 

Richard's plan for the princess. Elizabeth's views on the subject. 

this letter to Paris was not her free act, but that 
it was extorted from her by Kichard, who had 
her now completely in his power, and could, of 
course, easily find means to procure from her 
any writing that he might desire. 

Whether the queen acted freely or not in 
this case can not certainly be known. At all 
events, Henry, and those who were acting with 
him at Paris, determined to regard the letter as 
written under constraint, and to go on with the 
maturing of their plans just as if it had never 
been written. 

Eichard's plan was, so it was said, to marry 
the Princess Elizabeth to his own son ; for the 
death of his child, though it has been already 
once or twice alluded to, had not yet taken 
place. Eichard's son was very young, being 
at that time about eleven years old ; but the 
princess might be affianced to him, and the mar- 
riage consummated when he grew up. Eliza- 
beth herself seems to have fallen in with this 
proposed arrangement very readily. The pros- 
pect that Henry of Eichmond would ever suc- 
ceed in making himself king, and claiming her 
for his bride, was very remote and uncertain, 
while Eichard was already in full possession of 
power ; and she, by taking his side, and becom- 
ing the affianced wife of his son, became at once 



814 King Kichaed III. 

Death of Richard's son. Sickness of Queen Anne. 

the first lady in the kingdom, next to Queen 
Anne, with an apparently certain prospect of 
becoming queen herself in due time. 

But all these fine plans were abruptly brought 
to an end by the death of the young prince, 
which occurred about this time, at Middleham 
Castle, as has been stated before. The death 
of the poor boy took place in a very sudden 
and mysterious manner. Some persons sup- 
posed that he died by a judgment from heaven, 
in answer to the awful curses which Queen 
Elizabeth Woodville imprecated upon the head 
of the murderer of her children ; others thought 
he was destroyed by poison. 

Not very long after the death of the prince, 
his mother fell very seriously sick. She was 
broken-hearted at the death of her son, and 
pining away, she fell into a slow decline. Her 
sufferings were greatly aggravated by Richard's 
harsh and cruel treatment of her. He was 
continually uttering expressions of impatience 
against her on account of her sickness and use- 
lessness, and making fretful complaints of her 
various disagreeable qualities. Some of these 
sayings were reported to Anne, and also a ru- 
mor came to her ears one day, while she was 
at her toilet, that Richard was intending to put 
her to death. She was dreadfully alarmed at 



A.D.1484.] Domestic Troubles. 315 

Sufferings of the queen. Suspicions. 

hearing tliis, and she immediately ran, half 
dressed as she was, and with her hair dishev- 
eled, into the presence of her husband, and, 
with piteous sobs and bitter tears, asked him 
what she had done to deserve death. Kichard 
tried to quiet and calm her, assuring her that 
she had no cause to fear. 

She, however, continued to decline ; and not 
long afterward her distress and anguish of 
mind were greatly increased by hearing that 
Bichard was impatient for her death, in order 
that he might himself marry the Princess Eliz- 
abeth, to whom every one said he was now, 
since the death of his son, devoting himself per- 
sonally with great attention. In this state of 
suffering the poor queen lingered on through 
the months of the winter, very evidently, though 
slowly, approaching her end. The universal 
belief was that Eichard had formed the plan of 
making the Princess Elizabeth his wife, and that 
the decline and subsequent death of Anne were 
owing to a slow poison which he caused to be 
administered to her. There is no proof 'that 
this charge was true, but the general belief in 
the truth of it shows what was the estimate 
placed, in those times, on Eichard's character. 

It is very certain, however, that he contem- 
plated this new marriage, and that the princess 



816 King Kiciiard III. 

Elizabeth' s eagerness to marry the king. Death of the queen. 

herself acceded to the proposed plan, and was 
very deeply interested in the accomplishment 
of it. It is said that while the queen still lived 
she wrote to one of her friends — a certain noble 
duke of high standing and influence — in which 
she implored him to aid in forwarding her mar- 
riage with the king, whom she called " her 
master and her joy in this world — the master 
of her heart and thoughts." In this letter, too, 
she expressed her impatience at the queen's 
being so long in dying. " Only think," said 
she, " the better part of February is past, and 
the queen is still alive. Will she never die ?" 

But the patience of the princess was not des- 
tined to be taxed much longer. The queen 
sank rapidly after this, and in March she died. 

The heart of Elizabeth was now filled with 
exultation and delight. The great obstacle to 
her marriage with her uncle was now removed, 
and the way was open before her to become a 
queen. It is true that the relationship which 
existed between her and Eichard, that of uncle 
and niece, was such as to make the marriage 
utterly illegal. But Eichard had a plan of ob- 
taining a dispensation from the Pope, which he 
had no doubt that he could easily do, and a 
dispensation from the Pope, according to the 
ideas of those times, would legalize any thing. 



Domestic Troubles. 317 

Remonstrance of Richard' s counselors. 

So Richard cautiously proposed his plan to some 
of his confidential counselors. 

His counselors told him that the execution 
of such a plan would be dangerous in the high- 
est degree. The people of England, they said, 
had for some time been led to think that the 
king had that design in contemplation, and that 
the idea had awakened a great deal of indigna- 
tion throughout the country. The land was 
full of rumors and murmurings, they said, and 
those of a very threatening character. The 
marriage would be considered incestuous both 
by the clergy and the people, and would be 
looked upon with abhorrence. Besides, they 
said, there were a great many dark suspicions 
in the minds of the people that Richard had 
been himself the cause of the death of his for- 
mer wife Anne, in order to open the way for 
this marriage, and now, if the marriage were 
really to take place, all these suspicions would 
be confirmed. They could judge somewhat, 
they added, by the depth of the excitement 
which had been produced by the bare suspicion 
that such things were contemplated, how great 
would be the violence of the outbreak of pub- 
lic indignation if the design were carried into 
effect. Richard would be in the utmost danger 
of losing his kingdom. 



818 King Kichard III. 



Kichard gives up the plan. 




POETBAIT OF THE miNCBSS ELIZABETH. 

So Eicliard determined at once to abandon 
tlie plan. He caused it to be announced in the 
most public manner that be bad never contem- 
plated sucb a marriage, and tbat all tbe rumors 
attributing sucb a design to bim were malicious 



Domestic Troubles. 319 

Disappointment of Elizabctli. 

and false. He also sent orders abroad through- 
out the kingdom requiring that all persons who 
had circulated such rumors should be arrested 
and sent to London to be punished. 

Elizabeth's hopes were, of course, suddenly 
blasted, and the splendid castle which her im- 
agination had built fell to the ground. It was 
only a temporary disappointment, however, for 
she became Queen of England in the end, aft- 
er all. 



820 King Eichaed III. 



Eichmond goes on with his preparations at Paris. 



Chapter XYII. 
The Field of Bosworth. 
N the mean time, while Eichard had been 



I 



occupied with the schemes and manoeuvres 
described in the last chapter, Eichmond was go- 
ing on steadily in Paris with the preparations 
that he was making for a new invasion of En- 
gland. The King of France assisted him both 
by providing him with money and aiding him 
in the enlistment of men. When Eichmond 
received the message from Elizabeth's mother 
declaring that the proposed match between him 
and the princess must be broken off, and heard 
that Eichard had formed a plan for marrying 
the yoimg lady himself, he paid no regard to 
the tidings, but declared that he should proceed 
with his plans as vigorously as ever, and that, 
whatever counter-schemes they might form, 
they might rely upon it that he should fully 
carry into effect his purpose, not only of depos- 
ing Eichard and reigning in his stead, but also 
of making the Princess Elizabeth his wife, ac 
cording to his original intention. 

At length the expedition was ready, and the 



Field of Bosworth. 821 

The expedition sails. Richard issues a proclamation. 

fleet conveying it set sail from tlie ipovt of Har- 
fleur. 

Eichard attempted to arouse the people of 
England against the invaders by a grand proc- 
lamation which he issued. In this proclama- 
tion he designated the Earl of Richmond as 
" one Henry Tudor," who had no claim what- 
ever, of any kind, to the English throne, but 
who was coming to attempt to seize it without 
any color of right. In order to obtain assist- 
ance from the King of France, he had promised, 
the proclamation said, " to surrender to him, in 
case he was successful, all the rich possessions 
in France which at that time belonged to En- 
gland, even Calais itself; and he had promised, 
moreover, and given away, to the traitors and 
foreigners who were coming with him, all the 
most important and valuable places in the king- 
dom — archbishoprics, bishoprics, duchies, earl- 
doms, baronies, and many other inheritances be- 
longing of right to the English knights, es- 
quires, and gentlemen who were now in the 
possession of them. The proclamation farther 
declared that the people who made up his army 
were robbers and murderers, and rebels attaint- 
ed by Parliament, many of whom had made 
themselves infamous as cutthroats, adulterers, 
and . extortioners." 

X 



822 King Eichard III. [A.D.1485. 

Plans'of the campaign. The king goes to Nottingham. 

Eichard closed liis proclamation by calling 
upon all his subjects to arm themselves, like 
true and good Englishmen, for the defense of 
their wives, children, goods, and hereditaments, 
and he promised that he himself, like a true and 
courageous prince, would put himself in the 
forefront of the battle, and expose his royal per- 
son to the worst of the dangers that were to be 
incurred in the defense of the country. 

At the same time that he issued this procla- 
mation, Eichard sent forth orders to all parts 
of the kingdom, commanding the nobles and 
barons to marshal their forces, and make ready 
to march at a moment's warning. He -dis- 
patched detachments of his forces to the south- 
ward to defend the southern coast, where he 
expected Eichmond would land, while he him- 
self proceeded northward, toward the centre 
of the kingdom, to assemble and organize his 
grand army. He made iNfottingham his head- 
quarters, and he gradually gathered around 
him, in that city, a very large force. 

In the mean time, while these movements 
and preparations had been going on on both 
sides, the spring and the early part of the sum- 
mer passed away, and at length Eichard, at Not- 
tingham, in the month of August, received the 
tidings that Eichmond had landed at .Milford 



A.D.1485.] Field of Bosworth. 323 

nichraond's hopes and expectations. The various negotiations. 

Haven, on the soutliwestern coast of Wales, 
with a force of two or three thousand men. 
Kichard said that he was glad to hear it. "I 
am glad," said he, *' that at last he has come. I 
have now only to meet him, and gain one de- 
cisive victory, and then the security of my 
kingdom will be disturbed no more." 

Kichmond did not rely wholly on the troops 
which he had brought with him for the success 
of his cause. He believed that there was a great 
and prevailing feeling of disaffection against 
Eichard throughout England, and that, as soon 
as it should appear that he, Eichmond, was 
really in earnest in his determination to claim 
and take the crown, and that there was a rea- 
sonable prospect of the success of his enterprise, 
great numbers of men, who were now ostensi- 
bly on Eichard's side, would forsake him and 
join the invader. So he sent secret messen- 
gers throughout the kingdom to communicate 
with his friends, and to open negotiations with 
those of Eichard's adherents who might possi- 
bly be inclined to change sides. In order to 
give time for these negotiations to produce their 
effect, he resolved not to march at once into the 
interior of the country, but to proceed slowly 
toward the eastward, along the southern coast 
of Wales, awaiting intelligence. This plan he 



324 King Kiciiard III. 

Richard at Nottingham. He commences his march- 

pursued. His strengtli increased rapidly as lie 
advanced. At length, when he reached the 
eastern borders of Wales, he began to feel strong 
enough to push forward into England to meet 
Richard, who was all this time gathering his 
forces together at Nottingham, and preparing 
for a very formidable resistance of the invader. 
He accordingly advanced to Leicester, and 
thence to the town of Tamworth, where there 
was a strong castle on a rock. He took pos- 
session of this castle, and made it, for a time, 
his head-quarters. 

In the mean time, Richard, having received 
intelligence of Richmond's movements, and hav- 
ing now made every thing ready for his own 
advance, determined to delay no longer, but to 
go forth and meet his enemy. Accordingly, 
one morning, he marshaled his troops in the 
market-place of ISTottingham, "separating his 
foot-soldiers in two divisions, five abreast, and 
dividing his cavalry so as to form two wide- 
spreading wings." He placed his artillery, 
with the ammunition, in the centre, reserving 
fo? himself a position in a space immediately 
behind it. 

When all was ready, he came out from the 
castle mounted upon a milk-white charger. He 
wore, according, to the custom of the times, a 



Field of Boswohtii. 327 

The long column. Bosworth. The two armies. 

very magnificent armor, resplendent with gold 
and embroidery, and with, polished steel that 
glittered in the sun. Over his helmet he Avore 
his royal crown. He was preceded and follow- 
ed, as he came out throngh the castle gates and 
descended the winding way which led down 
from the hill on which the castle stands, by 
guards splendidly dressed and mounted — arch- 
ers, and spearmen, and other men at arms — - 
with ensigns bearing innumerable pennants and 
banners. As soon as he joined the army in the 
town the order was given to march, and so great 
was the number of men that he had under his 
command that they were more than an hour 
in marching out of Nottingham, and when all 
had finally issued from the gate, the column 
covered the road for three miles. 

At length, after some days of manoeuvring 
and marching, the two armies came into the im- 
mediate vicinity of each other near the town 
of Bosworth, at a place where there was a wide 
field, which has since been greatly renowned in 
history as the Field of Bosworth. The two 
armies advanced into the neighborhood of this 
field on the 19th and 20th days of August, and 
both sides began to prepare for battle. 

The army which Eichard commanded was 
far more numerous and imposing than that of 



828 King Kichard III. 



Richard's depression and anxiety. His painful suspicions. 

Kichmond, and every thing, so far as outward 
appearances were concerned, promised him an 
easy victory. And yet Kichmond was exultant 
in his confidence of success, while Eichard was 
harassed with gloomy forebodings. His mind 
was filled with perplexity and distress. He be- 
lieved that the leading nobles and generals on 
his side had secretly resolved to betray him, 
and that they were prepared to abandon him 
and go over to the enemy on the very field of 
battle, unless he could gain advantages so de- 
cisive at the very commencement of the con- 
flict as to show that the cause of Eichmond was 
hopeless. Although Eichard was morally con- 
vinced that this was the state of things, he had 
no sufficient evidence of it to justify his taking 
any action against the men that he suspected. 
He did not even dare to express his suspicions, 
for he knew that if he were to do so, or even 
to intimate that he felt suspicion, the only ef- 
fect would be to precipitate the consummation 
of the treachery that he feared, and perhaps 
drive some to abandon him who had not yet 
fully resolved on doing so. He was obliged, 
therefore, though sufiering the greatest anxiety 
and alarm, to suppress all indications of his un- 
easiness, except to his most confidential friends. 
To them he appeared, as one of them stated, 



Field of Bosworth. 329 

His remorae. The battle. Richard betrayed. Defection of his men. 

'' sore moved and broiled with, melanclioly and 
dolor, and from time to time lie cried out, ask- 
ing vengeance of them that, contrary to their 
oath and promise, were so deceiving him." 

The recollection of the many crimes that he 
had committed in the attainment of the power 
which he now feared he was about to lose for- 
ever, harassed his mind and tormented his con- 
science, especially at night. ''He took ill rest 
at nights," says one of his biographers, "using 
to lie long, waking and musing, sore wearied 
with care and watch, and rather slumbered than 
slept, troubled with, fearful dreams." 

On the day of the battle Eichard found the 
worst of his forebodings fulfilled. In the early 
part of the day lie took a position upon an ele- 
vated portion of the ground, where he could 
survey the whole field, and direct the move- 
ments of his troops. From this point he could 
see, as the battle went on, one body of men aft- 
er another go over to the enemy. He was over- 
whelmed with, vexation and rage. He cried 
out. Treason ! Treason [ and, calling upon his 
guards and attendants to follow him, he rushed 
down the hill, determined to force his way to 
the part of the field where Eichmond himself 
was stationed, with a view of engaging him 
and killing him with his own hand. This, he 



830 King Eichard III. 

Eichard's Well. Hia despair. Terrible combat. 

tliouglit, was the last liope tliat was now left 
liim. 

There was a spring of water, and a little 
brook flowing from it in a part of the field 
where he had to pass. He stopped at this 
spring, opened his helmet, and took a drink 
of the water. He then closed his helmet and 
rode on. 

This spring afterward received, from this cir- 
cumstance, the name of ^'Eichard's Well," and 
it is known by that name to this day. 

From the spring Eichard rushed forward, at- 
tended by a few followers as fearless as him- 
self, in search of Eichmond. He penetrated the 
enemies' lines in the direction where he sup- 
posed Eichmond was to be found, and was soon 
surrounded by foes, whom he engaged desper- 
ately in a hand-to-hand encounter of the most 
furious and reckless character. He slew one 
or two of the foremost of those who surround- 
ed him, calling out all the time to Eichmond to 
come out and meet him in single combat. This 
Eichmond would not do. In the mean time, 
many of Eichard's friends came up to his assist- 
ance. Some of these urged him to retire, say- 
ing that it was useless for him to attempt to 
maintain so unequal a contest, but he refused 
to go. 



Field of Bosworth. 331 

He refuses to fly. Eichard is killed. Transfer of the crown. 

"Not one foot will I fl}^," said he, "so long 
as breath bides within my breast ; for, by Him 
that shaped both sea and land, this day shall 
end my battles or my life. I will die King of 
England." 

So he fought on. Several faithful friends 
still adhered to him and fought by his side. 
His standard-bearer stood his ground, with the 
king's banner in his hand, until at last both his 
legs were cut off under him, and he fell to the 
earth ; still he would not let the banner go, 
but clung to it with a convulsive grasp till he 
died. 

At last Eichard too was overpowered by 
the numbers that beset him. Exhausted by 
his exertions, and weakened by loss of blood, 
he was beaten down from his horse to the 
ground and killed. The roj^al crown which he 
had worn so proudly into the battle was knock- 
ed from his head in the dreadful affray, and 
trampled in the dust. 

Lord Stanley, one of the chieftains who had 
abandoned Eichard's cause and gone over to 
the enemy, picked up the crown, all battered 
and bloodstained as it was, and put it upon 
Eichmond's head. From that hour Eichmond 
was recognized as King of England. He reign- 
ed under the title of Henry the Seventh. 



832 King Riciiakd III. [A.D.1485. 



Flight of Kichard's troops. 




KING UENKY VII. 



The few followers that had remained faithful 
to Kichard's cause up to this time now gave 
up the contest and fled. The victors lifted up 
the dead body of the king, took off the armor, 
and then placed the body across the back of a 
horse, behind a pursuivant-at-arms, who, thus 
mounted, rode a little behind the new king as 



Field of Boswortii. 



Disposition of the body. Henry marries the princess. 

he retired from the field of battle. Followed 
bj this dreadful trophy of his victory, King 
Henry entered the town of Leicester in tri- 
umph. The body of Kichard was exposed for 
three days, in a public place, to the view of all 
beholders, in order that every body might be 
satisfied that he was really dead, and then the 
new king proceeded by easy journeys to Lon- 
don. The people came out to meet him all 
along the way, receiving him every where with 
shouts and acclamations, and crying, "King 
Henry! King Henry! Long live our sover- 
eign lord, King Henry !" 

For several weeks after his accession Hen- 
ry's mind was occupied with public affairs, but, 
as soon as the most urgent of the calls upon his 
attention were disposed of, he renewed his pro- 
posals to the Princess Elizabeth, and in Janu- 
ary of the next year they were married. It 
seems to have been a matter of no consequence 
to her whether one man or another was her 
husband, provided he was only King of En- 
gland, so that she could be queen. Henry's 
motive, too, in marrying her, was equally mer- 
cenary, his only object being to secure to him- 
self, through her, the right of inheritance to her 
father's claims to the throne. He accordingly 
never pretended to feel any love for her, and, 



834 King Kichard III. [A.D.1492. 

Queea Elizabeth Woodville. lust years of her life. 

after his marriage, tie treated her with great 
coldness and neglect. 

His conduct toward her poor mother, the 
dowager queen, Elizabeth Woodville, was still 
more unfriendly. He sent her to a gloomy 
monastery, called the Monastery of Bermond- 
sey, and caused her to be kept there in the cus- 
tody of the monks, virtually a prisoner. The 
reason which he assigned for this was his dis- 
pleasure with her for abandoning his cause, and 
breaking the engagement which she had made 
with him for the marriage of her daughter to 
him, and also for giving herself and her daugh- 
ter up into Bichard's hands, and joining with 
him in the intrigues which Eichard formed for 
connecting the princess with his family. In 
this lonely retreat the widowed queen passed 
the remainder of her days. She was not pre- 
cisely a prisoner — at least, she was not kept in 
close and continual confinement, for two or 
three times, in the course of the few remaining 
years that she lived, she was brought, on spe- 
cial occasions, to court, and treated there with 
a certain degree of attention and respect. One 
of these occasions was that of the baptism of 
her daughter's child. 

In this lonely and cheerless retreat the queen 
lingered a few years, and then died. Her body 



A.D.U92.] Field of Bosworth. 337 

Her death and burial. 

was conveyed to Windsor for interment, and 
her daughters and the friends of her family 
were notified of the event. A very few came 
to attend the funeral. Her daughter Elizabeth 
was indisposed, and did not come. The inter- 
ment took place at night. A few poor old men, 
in tattered garments, were employed to ofi&ciate 
at the ceremony by holding " old torches and 
torches' ends" to light the gloomy precincts of 
the chapeLduring the time while the monks 
were chanting the funeral dirge. 
Y 



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